Kinexys by J.P. Morgan Flourishes in the MENA Region

Kinexys by J.P. Morgan, the firm’s blockchain business unit, has recently won mandates from Qatar National Bank and Saudi National Bank, solidifying our position as a leading global blockchain infrastructure provider for banks, with 8 of the largest financial institutions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)[1] such as Qatar National Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Saudi National Bank, Emirates NBD, Commercial Bank of Dubai, and Bank ABC now live on the Kinexys platform.

As an established bank in the region – for nearly a century, J.P. Morgan has been committed to serving clients in MENA – we are uniquely positioned to deliver the full spectrum of capabilities clients require to address the complex challenges they face.

In March 2025, Qatar National Bank (QNB) began leveraging Kinexys Digital Payments (KDP) as its blockchain payment system for USD corporate flows. This makes QNB the first bank in Qatar to use KDP’s blockchain deposits accounts for 24/7 settlement of their corporate flows, facilitating and automating on-demand multi-currency cross-border payments. Through the relationship, QNB can address the complex challenges in the industry for commercial settlements, such as cross-border payments and liquidity funding needs.  

Kamel Moris, Executive Vice President, Global Transaction Banking, Qatar National Bank said, “At QNB, our alliance with Kinexys by J.P. Morgan marks a bold step forward in delivering on our client-first promise. This relationship reinforces our commitment to innovation, seamless connectivity, and global financial leadership. By integrating next-generation infrastructure, we’re shaping the future of treasury with purpose and precision. Together, we advance a new era of client-centric excellence—intelligent, agile, and forward-looking.” 

In February 2025, Saudi National Bank (SNB) also went live with KDP, to bring real-time programmable payments to its Treasury. By leveraging KDP, SNB will be able to programmatically move funds across its various branches, as well as discharge treasury payment obligations without cut-offs on a 24/7 basis. SNB also intends to roll out the capability to select large corporate clients in a phased manner, providing the optionality to leverage the state-of-art blockchain platform for cross-border money movement. 

Ali Al Shubbar, Head of Treasury Operations and International Operations at Saudi National Bank commented, “We are excited to have achieved this landmark milestone in collaboration with Kinexys by J.P. Morgan. As part of our mission to create the ‘Bank of Tomorrow,’ we have leveraged the next-generation Kinexys Digital Payments blockchain network alongside our digital banking capabilities to facilitate seamless cross-border payments. We’ve successfully piloted U.S. dollar-denominated flows, and this technology will allow us to scale our existing offering and introduce more cutting-edge and frictionless capabilities to our branches, affiliates and clients going forward.

“We envisage major developments throughout the world across settlement platforms, which will play a critical role in enabling future digital economies. We also remain steadfast in our role as a key contributor in supporting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s ambitions to lead innovation within the financial technology arena locally, regionally and globally.”

Other recent significant mandates include:

• Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) became the first bank in the Middle East to integrate the Kinexys Liink application Confirm into its corporate banking portal and mobile app. The integration provides CBD’s corporate clients with streamlined cross-border payment flows as a result of faster, more secure, and more efficient account validation. CBD’s initial rollout of the Confirm application will focus on the United States and India, two high-traffic corridors for cross-border payments.
• First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) successfully completed a programmable payments pilot through Kinexys Digital Payments in September 2024, enabling payments to be triggered at specific times or events. The pilot included FAB’s successful completion of time-based and threshold balance-based account funding into deposit accounts to execute a payment obligation and laid the groundwork for use cases such as automated and conditional invoice payments, margin funding and settlement solutions.
• Bahrain’s Bank ABC became the first bank in the Middle East to introduce faster cross-border payments to specific corridors for corporates and financial institutions utilising Kinexys Digital Payments in September 2023. This was the first-of-its-kind commercial payment offering between Kinexys by J.P. Morgan and Bank ABC, and enabled cross-border commercial transactions to be executed between Bahrain and U.S. corridors nearly instantly, atomically and with certainty. 

“We are driven by a relentless focus on building next-generation financial infrastructure backed by deep industry expertise,” says Naveen Mallela, Global Co-Head of Kinexys by J.P. Morgan. “The increasingly digital global economy in the Middle East and North Africa presents a unique opportunity to continue supporting clients through our innovative offerings. We are excited to work with our clients across MENA to realize the future of finance.”  

A division of J.P. Morgan Payments, Kinexys by J.P. Morgan comprises four key areas transforming how information, money and assets move around the world: Kinexys Digital Payments (KDP), a deposit ledger and payment rail; Kinexys Digital Assets (KDA), an asset tokenization platform; Kinexys Liink, the first bank-led, scalable, permissioned payments information network; and Kinexys Labs, an industry-leading research team.

Since inception, over $1.5 trillion in transaction volume has been processed on the Kinexys platform[2], which processes on average more than $2 billion daily in transaction volume[3] and payments transactions on the Kinexys platform have grown by 10x year-over-year[4]. Now serving clients across five continents, including central and commercial banks in geographies including India and the Middle East, we are helping businesses around the world harness the speed and efficiency enabled by blockchain technology.

Notably, Kinexys Digital Payments has integrated with J.P. Morgan FX Services to enable FX settlement on chain, an industry first, in USD, EUR and GBP, with plans to expand to more currencies. Clients can execute near real-time FX transactions and settlement, reducing FX settlement risk and speeding up trade settlements.