Cryptocurrency Testing in Saudi, UAE Central Banks

A pilot inititive is being launched by the central banks of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to test a new cryptocurrency for cross-border payments.

Mubarak Rashid al-Mansouri, the UAE central bank’s governor, unveiled the initiative at a meeting of the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF). According to GDN, al-Mansouri praised the effort as a first for the region.  He said, it’s the first time that monetary authorities of two countries cooperate with for using blockchain technology.

The project was described by al-Mansouri as a digitization between central banks and banks.

The involvement of Saudi Arabia’s central bank is notable, given that the institution to date has not commented on the tech or indicated that it was looking into potential use cases.

UAE is considered to be home of number of private and public sector-driven initiatives, including Dubai’s Global Blockchain Council. Recently, a number of financial institutions have explored uses of the tech, including  Emirates NBD, which is developing a blockchain-based service for validating bank cheques.