Norbloc Fides Blockchain at the Center of UAE KYC Blockchain consortiums

In less than two weeks, Norbloc blockchain has been at the center of two major announcements in the UAE with regards to implementation of KYC Blockchain consortiums. The first announcement was made by Dubai Economic Department and six UAE Banks that included names such as Emirates NBD, Emirates Islamic, HSBC, RAKBANK, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) and Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD). The consortium announced that it had partnered with Norbloc which is utilizing is Fides Platform for its implementation that will be launched in Q2 of 2020.  Astyanax Kanakais, CEO and Co-founder of Norbloc commented, “This announcement is truly a watershed moment. Our growing consortium will cultivate an ecosystem in the UAE that will set the global standard for how KYC data should be shared. “

Then two weeks later on March 1^st DIFC and Mashreq Bank also announced their KYC Data sharing platform utilizing Norbloc as well.  

UNLOCK interviewed Mr. Astyanax Kanakakis. As Kanakakis explains, “Both these implementations are very important for the UAE, companies that want to operate in the UAE, the banking sector and private sector. The first consortium started with six banks and more members will be joining gradually, eventually we plan for all banks to join as this will add value for these banks and their customers.”

According to Kanakakis, the Central Bank is part of the consortium utilizing the Blockchain decentralized architecture, so that one version of the truth can be shared between all participants under the regulatory oversight of the central bank.

Kanakakis adds, “Both Dubai Economic Department consortium as well as DIFC and Mashreq KYC consortium want to work together and both projects are moving forward quickly. Both platforms are interoperable as we are using Hyperledger Fabric 2.0 with each participant having a node on the network.”

Kanakakis believes that the KYC Blockchain platforms in place will dismantle the silos in place when it comes to Banking KYC, and duplication of efforts in this regards. As he explained, “We are alleviating the need to validate information individually, for example today when one bank does KYC for a customer, the other bank will never find out about it, with KYC Blockchain platform these issues will be resolved. We also ensure that the data is owned by customer and he/she grants permissions for which banks can view KYC data, so we manage consent correctly.”

As for the role of Smart Dubai, according to Kanakakis, “Smart Dubai is coordinating all blockchain implementations within Dubai, to ensure that efforts are no duplicated and that all pieces of the puzzle come together nicely.”

As for the future implementation Kanakis believes that more KYC Blockchain implementations will start unfolding. As he states, “We have plans to work with Central Bank of Egypt to start something with on of the banks in Egypt, and we are also in discussions with banking sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

Norbloc’s platform is tailored to reduce KYC costs by around 50% via digitization, which diminishes the duplication of efforts and enables the monetization of KYC efforts.