Emirates NBD announced it is live on the Partior network, the DLT based clearing and settlement network for cross border payments, making it the first bank in the MENAT region on the network. Partior pre dates the BIS Project Agorá and has some similarities in that it uses blockchain to expedite correspondent banking, but without the interbank settlement in wCBDC. Apart from Emirates NBD, its backers include DBS, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Standard Chartered and Temasek.
Partior and Emirates NBD announced they were exploring working together in November 2024, without a firm commitment at that stage. The original announcement was more ambitious. Emirates NBD was set to become a network settlement bank for the UAE Dirham, Saudi Riyal and Indian Rupee. This go live is phase one, with the bank operating as a USD participant rather than a settlement bank. JP Morgan acted as both settlement and beneficiary bank for the first transaction, and initially Emirates NBD will support payments by corporate and institutional clients with beneficiary accounts at JP Morgan.
That is functionally similar to what JP Morgan’s Kinexys Digital Payments could offer. The key difference with Partior is that in future Emirates NBD will be able to support payments to other banks in the network and plans to expand the currency range. We’ve asked whether it still plans to become a settlement bank, but didn’t receive a response in time for publication.
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