Dubai Economy partners with local banks to form KYC platform

Dubai Economy has partnered with multiple local banks to form a consortium for sharing verified KYC (Know Your Customer) data between financial institutions and licensing authorities in the UAE.

The banks that are part of the consortium include Emirates NBD, Emirates Islamic, HSBC, RAKBANK, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) and Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD), a statement said.

The ‘KYC Blockchain Consortium’ will facilitate faster and more secure exchange of digital customer data and documents through the blockchain technology.

The new KYC platform will also facilitate the sharing of authenticated KYC data of companies with financial institutions of their preference, expediting services such as bank account opening for newly registered companies.

“Our strategic alliance with banks to launch the first KYC blockchain platform in the UAE is an important step towards continuing to attract investors to this market,” Ali Ibrahim, deputy director general, Dubai Economy said.

“The platform will offer a digital ‘Instant Bank Account’ functionality, allowing for faster and less cumbersome on-boarding journey with banks and significantly improving the experience of new investors looking to establish themselves in the UAE. This in turn will boost customer satisfaction as well as ease of doing business in the UAE as a whole.”

The KYC platform will launch in Q1 2020 by when it will allow additional banks and licensing authorities to join.

Wesam Lootah, CEO, Smart Dubai Government Establishment, said: “Blockchain is a breakthrough of particular importance for us; we see in it tremendous potential to streamline services and operations, saving time, money, and resources for everyone involved – individuals, companies, or governments.”