Dubai, 31 March 2019: UAE Banks Federation (UBF) in association with SWIFT, the worlds leading provider of secure financial messaging services, hosted a full day event to discuss the unprecedented digital transformation taking place across the financial services industry. The event, held in Abu Dhabi, brought together banking experts and specialists to focus on the evolution of payment landscape, and how the widespread adoption of SWIFT global payment innovation (gpi) can benefit banks and corporates in the UAE.

SWIFT gpi was launched in 2017, and has dramatically enhanced cross-border payments by increasing speed, transparency, and end-to-end tracking. Hundreds of thousands of cross-border payments, totalling over $300bn, are sent every day using the new gpi standard. Currently eight banks in the UAE use the service, with many more agreed to sign. The Central Bank of the UAE also gave an update on the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system of the UAE, which facilitates the transfer of funds between banks and other financial institutions in the UAE via their accounts held with the Central Bank.

H.E. AbdulAziz Al Ghurair, Chairman of UBF, said: In line with UBFs commitment to stay abreast of the latest innovations that are disrupting the financial services industry, we are pleased to collaborate with SWIFT to facilitate the widespread adoption of gpi among UAE banks. As an industry, we continue to collaborate and explore ways to benefit from digital advancements to create richer experiences for customers. We encourage all our UBF member banks to adopt this exceptional service, and ultimately support the UAE in its journey to become one of the foremost international hubs for finance.

The event held several discussions pertaining to the gpi initiative and its impact on the payment landscape, highlighting changes in customer behaviour as a key reason to adopt gpi.