Zand is one of the first digital-only banks to be licensed in the UAE. Headquartered in Dubai, the company is chaired by Mohamed Alabbar, the founder and chairman of Emaar Properties, the country’s largest property developer. The bank intends to launch services for retail and corporate customers during the first quarter of 2022.

Our key focus is supply chain financing, or as we call it, ‘ecosystem-linked financing’, where we can help provide financing products to companies because we have a deep understanding of the wider ecosystem in which they operate. Within this, there are two main categories of customers we’re planning to reach: larger anchor clients, and their small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) suppliers.

Supporting the UAE’s SME sector is a key priority for the government, and it’s an area we feel we can make a real difference. One of the largest problems facing SMEs is access to financing. We believe that with the data infrastructure that we’ve built, we’ll be able to work with SMEs to smartly assess risk and find the perfect product and loan rate for their needs.