Qatar National Bank (QNB) began using JPMorgan’s Kinexys blockchain platform to process corporate settlements in U.S. dollars. Payments are available 24/7 and are completed in less than two minutes.
QNB Group, one of the largest banks in Africa and the Middle East, connected its Qatari branch to JPMorgan’s Kinexys Digital Payments blockchain system, Bloomberg reports.
The upgraded infrastructure allows QNB to process client dollar payments around the clock, while traditional interbank transfers can take several days and are limited to business hours.
According to Kamel Moris, Executive Vice President of Transactional Banking at QNB, the adoption of Kinexys is aimed at meeting the demands of the bank’s corporate clients, who require fast and predictable settlements. “This enables a 24/7 service window. We can guarantee payments as fast as two minutes,” he noted.
JPMorgan launched the Kinexys DLT network in 2019, and according to the company, it processes around $3 billion worth of transactions daily. For comparison, JPMorgan’s overall payments division handles $10 trillion in daily turnover.
QNB’s move to blockchain-based payments reflects a global trend, with leading financial institutions increasingly adopting DLT systems to speed up and optimize international settlements. Payment solutions based on Kinexys are already actively used by First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) and Marex Group plc. In addition, the solution was successfully tested in cross-chain settlements for tokenized asset transactions and is used to improve cross-border B2B payments.
