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Emirates Development Bank Launches National Supply Chain Finance Platform

• Platform will provide much needed access to finance for UAE businesses.
• Digitalisation of financial services has become a core focus of UAE government.
• Initial phase offering payables finance solution now live.

Abu Dhabi, 11th October 2020 – Emirates Development Bank (EDB) today announces the launch of UAE’s National Supply Chain Finance (SCF) platform, giving UAE businesses improved access to working capital by enabling suppliers to gain quicker access to money owed, while buyers get more time to pay off their invoices.

The project is supported by the UAE Federal Government and was developed through the close collaboration between Emirates Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group and HPD LendScape.

The initial phase of the project, offering a payables finance solution, has now gone live.  The next phase is set to provide a comprehensive suite of buyer and supplier centric SFC variations, including Islamic Finance products.

Faisal Aqil Al Bastaki, Chief Executive Officer of EDB, said: “With SME’s facing an unprecedented challenge, accessing efficient finance is vital. In our role as the UAE’s development bank, EDB is filling the gap and has launched a first class National Supply Chain Finance Platform. Such a sophisticated and digitally enhanced SCF platform is a crucial resource to any well-functioning economy; lenders and buyers should take advantage of the solution offered to ensure that SMEs continue to play their part in the UAE’s economic growth, long after Covid-19 has passed.”

The National Supply Chain Finance platform has extensive configurability to adapt to different regulatory environments and local market requirements, giving the opportunity for commercial banks to on-board and launch their own payables products variations and manage their custom SCF programmes. EDB will also set up a new Centre of Excellence that will provide expert support to local funders.

Bringing together buyers, suppliers and banks onto one platform, the National Supply Chain Finance solution helps simplify and automate operations, mitigate risk more effectively and make SME finance easily accessible - much needed in the UAE today. Through a modern online portal accessible from any device, suppliers can interact with both buyers and funders in real time, can request finance with a click and all counterparties enjoy personalised screens and increased visibility of accounts receivables in the supply chain. New on-boarding capabilities enable a fast, paperless and efficient KYC process, with bespoke workflows tailored to each buyer programme and to each group of suppliers or to even individual suppliers, much of which lenders historically completed via lengthy and slower manual processes.