Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the MENAT (Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye) region, has announced leading enterprise distributed ledger technology and services firm R3 as a key council member of the Digital Asset Lab. R3 will join PwC, a professional services firm, and Fireblocks, a digital asset transfer and direct custody technology platform, as the founding council members of the Lab.

R3’s Corda is the world’s leading distributed application and tokenization platform powering regulated digital finance. Only Corda offers a permissioned ledger, asset modeling capabilities, and a multi-party workflow engine in one interoperable and scalable distributed platform.

The expansion demonstrates Emirates NBD’s continuing commitment to spearhead innovation in the financial sector with the help of cutting-edge solutions. With the new addition to the Digital Asset Lab, Emirates NBD is strengthening the new collaborative ecosystem by leveraging R3’s regulated markets expertise to drive transformative advancements in digital assets, currencies, and banking services. The new membership marks a pivotal step in Emirates NBD’s journey towards redefining the future of banking, using R3’s technology to enhance security, efficiency, and customer-centricity.

Abdulla Qassem, Group Chief Operating Officer at Emirates NBD, commented: “We are pleased to welcome R3, a technology pioneer, to the Digital Asset Lab. The platform is significant to Emirates NBD’s innovation strategy as it serves as a testing ground for new financial technologies and digital assets. As a digital banking leader, the Lab demonstrates Emirates NBD’s commitment to stay at the forefront of innovation in a rapidly evolving financial landscape.”

“Digital Asset Lab is set to significantly enhance our understanding of current and emerging technologies, along with their associated risks and benefits. This valuable insight will enable us to adapt and integrate these advancements into our services effectively and securely.”

David Rutter, Chief Executive Officer at R3, said: “R3 is delighted to be partnering with Emirates NBD by participating in its new Digital Asset Lab. The region continues to go from strength to strength in global financial innovation, and the creation of the Lab marks another significant milestone in the growth of its burgeoning FinTech sector.”

“As Lab partners, we are excited to support Emirates NBD in the development and testing of transformative technologies. Our efforts will contribute to vital initiatives centered around asset tokenization, distributed ledger technology, and digital transformation in regulated financial markets.”

The Digital Asset Lab was announced in May 2023 at the Dubai FinTech Summit, to enable and accelerate digital asset and financial services innovation in the UAE. As a national banking champion in the UAE, Emirates NBD is establishing a robust platform with industry experts for the development of innovative ideas in financial services using digital assets and its underlying technologies.

The Lab focuses purely on digital assets and how underlying technologies can be leveraged to enable customers to effectively manage their financial services requirements in the evolving and dynamic environment of digital assets.