Emirates NBD has launched live USD cross-border payment capabilities on the Partior blockchain payments network, making it the first bank in the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye (MENAT) region to offer this kind of service. J.P. Morgan is handling settlement on the back end.

What Partior actually does

Partior is a blockchain-based clearing and settlement network founded in 2021 by DBS Bank, J.P. Morgan, and Standard Chartered. Temasek and Peak XV Partners have also invested in the platform. The whole project traces its lineage back to Singapore’s Project Ubin, a central bank-backed initiative that explored how distributed ledger technology could fix the well-documented headaches of interbank settlements.

Traditional cross-border payments rely on correspondent banking relationships, batch processing windows, and a chain of intermediaries. Partior replaces that with continuous clearing and settlement on a multi-currency distributed ledger, supporting major currencies including USD, SGD, and EUR.

Emirates NBD completed its first live USD transaction on the network on October 22, 2024. J.P. Morgan serves as both the settlement bank and beneficiary bank for these transactions.

Emirates NBD’s expanding role

Emirates NBD has positioned itself as Partior’s first regional settlement bank, a designation that covers the UAE dirham, Saudi riyal, and Indian rupee within the Partior framework. The strategic partnership was formalized in October 2024, and the bank is reportedly evaluating potential equity investments in Partior through its Innovation Fund.

Emirates NBD also has plans to integrate programmable liquidity management into its Partior operations, with the goal of further accelerating settlement speeds and reducing turnaround times for corporate and institutional clients.