Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye (MENAT) region, has announced a fifth council member of its Digital Asset Lab – Chainlink, the standard for onchain finance, verifiable data, and cross-chain interoperability. Following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, Chainlink will join other founding members including PwC, Fireblocks, R3 and Chainalysis.
Chainlink’s membership will play a key role in advancing the Digital Asset Lab’s mission to create innovative solutions in digital finance. The Chainlink standard is unifying liquidity across global markets, having already enabled over USD 17 trillion in transaction value across the blockchain economy. Major financial market infrastructures and institutions are using Chainlink to power next-generation applications for banking, asset management and other major sectors.
Digital assets represent a market of over USD 1.3 trillion globally, with tokenisation alone contributing an estimated USD 230 billion annually to GDP in the MENA region, Ernst & Young estimates¹.
As digital assets increasingly become mainstream, banks are increasingly innovating to cater to cryptocurrencies, tokenised securities and Central Bank digital Currencies. This strategic alliance strengthens the Digital Asset Lab’s ability to scale the development of digital asset solutions while upholding the highest standards of trust, reliability and security.
Miguel Rio Tinto, Group Chief Digital and Information Officer at Emirates NBD, said: “We are proud to partner with Chainlink and welcome them to Emirates NBD’s Digital Asset Lab as a council member. As a key platform for our innovation strategy, the Digital Asset Lab enables us to pioneer next-generation solutions for our customers. With Chainlink Labs’ expertise in onchain finance, we are confident this partnership will drive new advancements in tokenisation and digital asset management, reinforcing Emirates NBD’s position as a regional leader in financial innovation.”
Angie Walker, Global Head of Banking and Capital Markets at Chainlink Labs, said: “Tokenisation and digital assets represent a hundred-trillion-dollar opportunity for financial institutions in the MENAT region and beyond. Chainlink Labs is excited to collaborate with Emirates NBD by becoming a council member of its Digital Asset Lab to help support the development of onchain financial applications powered by the Chainlink standard for onchain finance, verifiable data and cross-chain interoperability.”
The Digital Asset Lab was launched in May 2023 at the Dubai FinTech Summit, to accelerate digital asset and financial services innovation in the UAE. As a bank committed to providing customers greater access to a wide range of financial products, Emirates NBD has collaborated with industry leaders to build this platform.
Emirates NBD has a proven track record over a period of over seven years in the virtual assets, blockchain and distributed ledger technology industry, supporting many projects such as the authentication of cheques with blockchain, implementing a blockchain-based digital trade finance platform, and the digital dirham experiment ABER with the Central Bank of the UAE. The bank has also been instrumental in the launch of the first Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority in the UAE and the initiation of its compliance and risk operating framework.
The Digital Asset Lab has implemented groundbreaking solutions for Emirates NBD, such as offering crypto products in retail banking using loyalty program points, tokenised real-world assets such as bonds for Emirates NBD Capital, stablecoins and surrounding regulations, as well as compliance and monitoring of virtual asset transactions.
The bank recently announced the extension of its Digital Asset Lab to now also include academia, through the launch of its Future Leaders Outreach Program.
