Dubai: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank is the latest to sign up for the UAE Trade Connect platform, which is a consortium of local banks using blockchain to de-risk trade finance. The platform was launched last year with a select number of banks joining the telco e& (formerly Etisalat Group).
ADCB, among the largest banks in the UAE, is the ninth official member bank of the platform. All consortium member banks play an equal and active role in the steering and governance of the UTC platform.
Since going live, UAE Trade Connect has managed to bring about a significant reduction in ‘dubious transactions’. A sizeable Dh28 billion was presented as invoice value by the incumbent member banks in the last 12 months.
“Today is an important milestone that demonstrates how far UTC has come in our vision to co-create the UAE’s first commercialised blockchain platform and move towards a fully digitised trade finance ecosystem,” said Zulqarnain Javaid, CEO of UTC.
“As more banks join us, we are confident of strengthening our coverage in combating fraud even further as we will be catering to the majority of the trade finance market share.”
With the ‘Invoice Factoring’ law published by the Federal Government, the UTC blockchain platform will be a ‘key enabler for banks to increase lending to SMEs and allow corporates to borrow against their trade receivables’.
