Singapore, 30 September 2026 - Commercial Bank of Dubai’s (CBD) participation in the Commercial Bank Money Token (CBMT) initiative marks the first Middle East bank joining the network, extending CBMT beyond Europe. Their participation is supported by UDPN and GFT, technical service providers to the CBMT Sandbox.
CBD’s participation shows how the model can support regulated financial institutions beyond Europe and connect the European CBMT ecosystem with the Europe–Gulf trade corridor, where corporate clients are seeking faster, more transparent cross-border settlement.
Spearheaded by Die Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft (DK) and built with participants including Commerzbank, DZ Bank, Helaba, UniCredit, ABN AMRO, BNP Paribas and DNB, CBMT brings commercial bank money onto distributed ledger technology (DLT), enabling banks to settle corporate payments in tokenised form while maintaining the safeguards of regulated bank deposits.
The CBMT Sandbox launched in Frankfurt in November 2025, following a 2024 proof of concept. It serves as a collaborative test environment for institutional and corporate use cases across the full lifecycle of tokenised money flows, from issuance to enterprise payments and interbank settlement.
CBD will onboard to the CBMT Sandbox alongside participant banks, with UDPN and GFT supporting as technical service providers. Together, the participants will explore use cases including cross-border corporate payments, trade settlement, cross-jurisdiction treasury operations and working capital optimisation along the Europe–Gulf corridor. All sandbox activities remain subject to applicable regulatory requirements and do not constitute a commitment to commercial launch.
“CBMT was designed as a multi-issuer, multi-currency network from day one, and CBD shows that design working beyond Europe,” said Florian Becker, Managing Director APAC & GCC at GFT. “As a forward-looking innovator in digital currency and the first Middle East bank to join CBMT, CBD opens the network to a new region. As a technical service provider to the CBMT Sandbox, GFT and UDPN are proud to support this next phase of collaboration and help participating banks explore how tokenised commercial bank money can make cross-border corporate settlement faster, more transparent and more efficient.”
“Joining CBMT is a natural next step in CBD’s digital transformation strategy and our long-standing role in connecting UAE businesses with international markets. As the first bank from outside Europe to participate, we bring the perspective of the Gulf’s banking and trade sector to a broader effort to modernise commercial bank money on a secure, regulated basis,” said Dr. Bernd van Linder, Chief Executive Officer, CBD.
“Corporate and institutional clients across the Gulf and Europe want cross-border payments that are near real-time, transparent, and anchored in the security of commercial bank money,” said Barbara Riccardi, Co-Head of Wholesale Banking at CBD. “By joining CBMT, we are not only connecting the Gulf’s vibrant trade ecosystem to a leading European tokenised money initiative, we are actively shaping the future of tokenised commercial finance from a regional perspective.”
“CBMT was initiated by the German banking industry together with corporate clients to bring commercial bank money onto digital rails, but the challenges it solves, including slow and costly cross-border corporate payments, are global,” said Claus George, Head of Digitalisation and Innovation TxB at DZ BANK AG, on behalf of the CBMT Working Group. “CBD’s deep expertise in Europe–Gulf trade and its proven track record in digital banking innovation make it a natural participant. Welcoming CBD as the first bank from outside Europe to join CBMT is an important step toward our vision of a multi-issuer, multi-currency, multi-chain ecosystem, and we look forward to collaborating to extend these benefits to businesses across both regions.”
