Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the MENAT (Middle East, North Africa and Turkey) region, has announced a strategic partnership with FinTech collaboration platform, APIX Singapore.
The partnership will provide Emirates NBD access to APIX’s network of financial institutions and FinTechs in Asia-Pacific along with their real-time APIs.
Launched by The ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN), APIX is the world’s first cross-border, open architecture API marketplace and sandbox platform for collaboration between FinTechs and financial institutions in which participants can integrate and test solutions with each other via a cloud-based architecture.
2021 was the biggest year for fintech funding in Singapore, with 43 fintechs received funding of over USD 725 million in just the first half of the year, making it a ripe market for FinTech innovation. The partnership with APIX will give Emirates NBD access to early and later stage FinTechs in Singapore, driving key discussions in new business models, regulation, public-private collaborations, and transforming the financial technologies framework.
As a part of the strategic partnership, Emirates NBD will also gain access to APIX’s catalogue of member APIs along with templates and API connectors and tools, to support rapid design and prototyping of new products. By leveraging these, the bank can develop solutions that benefit customers through improved customer experience, digitisation of processes and introduction of new products and services.
Commenting on the announcement, Miguel Rio Tinto, Group Chief Information Officer, Emirates NBD said, “As the first bank in the Middle East to team up with APIX, we are excited to discover and collaborate with international FinTech players in Singapore to bring new opportunities and drive Fintech innovation in the region. We see this as a chance to stay ahead of the curve and bring our customers best-in-class experiences through new innovative digital products and services.”
He added, “Our partnership is in line with Emirates NBD’s long-term digital strategy, as we continue to lead innovation in digital banking in the region and actively participate in the fintech start-up ecosystem.”
Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said, "We are proud and glad to have Emirates NBD join APIX as an essential member. We are confident that with this partnership, our organizations will succeed in our endeavours in building a stronger ecosystem while reducing technological risk and cost by leveraging APIX’s global fintech community and readily available cloud infrastructure."