Dubai: Emirates NBD’s collaboration with the DIFC FinTech Hive, the Dubai International Financial Centre’s fintech accelerator and hub, for the certification of five fintech start-ups is credit positive for the bank, according to rating agency Moody’s.
“ENBD’s collaboration with the fintech start-ups, which all used ENBD’s application programming interface (API) sandbox, is credit positive because it will help the bank develop new digital products and services to meet evolving customer expectations, supporting the bank’s profitability,” said Mik Kabeya, an analyst at Moody’s.
Early adopter of technology
ENBD has been an early adopter of advanced digital technology. Its collaboration with fintechs and developers will allow the bank to combine the ideas and technical expertise of fintechs and developers with its own market and industry knowledge to accelerate the development and introduction of new digital products and services.
“New digital products will help ENBD meet evolving customer expectations amid the widening application of innovative digital financial services. ENBD’s API sandbox also opens the way for future collaboration between other banks and fintechs in the UAE and the broader GCC region,” said Kabeya.
Digital platform
ENBD’s API sandbox is a self-contained environment that provides fintechs and developers with a simulated banking space where they can experiment and create real world applications and services. The platform consists of over 200 APIs and 500 endpoints covering retail, corporate and small and medium-sized enterprise business lines. Developers also have access to more than five million simulated customer transactions based on the Banking Industry Architecture Network model.
ENBD’s API sandbox was launched in 2018 as part of its Dh1 billion ($272 million) digital transformation programme, which was announced in July 2017 for implementation over 2018-20. The sandbox follows the open banking standards, a solution backed by the UK government for enabling secure third-party access to payment accounts.
