From Days to Minutes: Qatar National Bank Adopts JPMorgan’s Blockchain for Faster USD Payments

Qatar National Bank (QNB) has become the first bank in the country to process U.S. dollar corporate payments on JPMorgan’s Kinexys Digital Payments (KDP) platform, a move that brings near-instant settlement to one of the Middle East’s largest financial institutions.

The integration allows QNB’s corporate clients to send and receive U.S. dollar payments around the clock and settle in as little as two minutes, a big improvement over traditional correspondent-banking rails that can take days and typically operate only on weekdays.

“Now we can have a 24/7 service window; we can guarantee payments as fast as in two minutes. It’s a treasurer’s dream,” said Kamel Moris, QNB’s executive vice president for global transaction banking.

Kinexys, launched in 2019, has rapidly expanded across the Middle East and North Africa. Eight major regional banks, including Saudi National Bank and Commercial Bank of Dubai, are now using the system to streamline multi-currency clearing and settlement.

JPMorgan says the network has processed over $1.5 trillion in total volume to date and now averages about $2 billion in daily transactions, a subset of the bank’s broader $10 trillion daily payments flow.

Programmable Payments and Liquidity Management

Beyond speed, the platform introduces programmable payments and automated liquidity tools. QNB can set time-based or threshold-triggered transfers, providing real-time flexibility for corporate treasurers.

Kinexys also integrates with JPMorgan’s FX services, enabling on-chain settlement in U.S. dollars, euros and pounds sterling, further reducing settlement risk.

Toward Institutional-Grade Scale

JPMorgan, the world’s largest U.S. dollar clearing bank, is leveraging its global correspondent network to extend Kinexys beyond its own customer base. “This is institutional-grade scale,” said Naveen Mallela, the platform’s global co-head, noting that the system is “rewiring how multi-currency clearing and settlement infrastructure operates in the region.”

There is no doubt that this partnership highlights how blockchain technology is shifting from pilot projects to core financial infrastructure.

For QNB and other leading banks in the region, it signals a new era of real-time, cross-border payments, one where money can finally move as quickly as information.