Partior, the DLT clearing and settlement network has signed two partnerships with Emirates NBD and cross border payment fintech Nium. DBS Bank, JP Morgan, Standard Chartered and Temasek founded the blockchain payments firm.
The Partior settlement network uses tokenization for cross border payments via correspondent banks and grew out of Singapore’s Project Ubin CBDC work.
Via the three founding correspondent banks, the network supports Singapore dollars, US dollars and euros. This means other participating banks and institutions can connect to Partior to make instant interbank cross border payments 24/7.
It’s not dissimilar to the BIS Project Agorá for cross border payments, except it is already in production and doesn’t currently use CBDC. Like Agorá, Partior addresses payment delays, high costs, and a lack of transparency.
Emirates NBD collaboration, investment
While the collaboration with Emirates NBD is to explore involvement rather than a firm commitment, if it proceeds then Emirates NBD would become a network settlement bank for the UAE Dirham, Saudi Riyal and Indian Rupee. It would also become a participant bank for other currencies, using the other network banks to execute instant cross border payments for its clients.
Emirates NBD is also considering an equity investment, although the comment below means it’s probably at the due diligence stage.
“The investment from Emirates NBD’s Innovation Fund represents an important moment in Partior’s journey as a leader in next-generation payments infrastructure,” said Neeraj Makin, Group Head of Strategy – Analytics and Venture Capital at Emirates NBD.
“It underscores our belief in blockchain’s transformative potential for financial services, particularly in cross-border transactions. What is truly exciting about this investment is the opportunity it creates for cross-market collaboration and the development of a seamless cross-currency payments ecosystem.”
Nium integration
Today Partior announced that Singapore’s Nium is the first fintech to join the Partior network. Nium provides cross border payment solutions for banks, money transfer companies and enterprises, processing $25 billion in transactions annually. In fact, Emirates NBD is one of its clients.
Nium’s big advantage is that with one API integration it supports payouts in over 220 markets. By joining the Partior network, it means its clients can benefit from the network’s 24/7 instant payments without another API integration.
“Nium’s partnership with Partior brings us closer to becoming the most connected payments network globally,” said Alexandra Johnson, Chief Payments Officer at Nium. “By integrating with advanced networks, such as Partior, we are ensuring that financial institutions can quickly and easily access our real-time payments infrastructure without the need for complex technical integrations.”
Notably, JP Morgan is Nium’s house bank.
Meanwhile, Partior has other solutions in the pipeline with Payment versus Payment for FX settlement as the one closest to launch, which offers significant promise in reducing settlement risk, especially for non mainstream currencies. Other plans include intraday FX swaps, cross currency repos and programmable enterprise liquidity management.
Partior is one of more than 70 solutions explored in our report on bank stablecoins, tokenized deposits and DLT payments.
