R3 strikes partnership with Dubai FinTech startup Wethaq

Enterprise blockchain company R3 has signed a strategic partnership with Wethaq, the Dubai-based FinTech startup, to develop a new financial market infrastructure in Islamic capital markets.

According to R3, this new infrastructure would empower issuers, investors, central banks and regulators to more easily transact in Islamic capital markets.

The partnership will depend on Wethaq’s platform, which is based on R3’s tech. Wethaq has collaborated with regulators in several jurisdictions to ensure the platform will be fully compliant both from financial and Shariah perspectives. The goal of the platform is to support the issuance and trading of Sukuk securities.

David E. Rutter, the CEO of R3, said, “Blockchain is driving an unprecedented period of innovation across capital markets, with more assets moving towards complete digitisation. As such, there is no better time to seize the advantages of blockchain to transform global financial systems. Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East region are areas where we see huge potential for Corda to modernise the economy and our partnership with Wethaq is a step towards achieving that.”

Mohammed Alsehli, the CEO at Wethaq added, “In building the next generation of financial market infrastructure for Sukuks we have found a valuable and trusted partner in R3 and its Corda Enterprise software.  Our joint focus is on building world class financial infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, in alignment with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, and the UAE, pursuant to their ambitious fintech agenda, before we expand to the entire Middle East and South East Asia. We invite the wider Sukuk community to join the platform to ease access to capital markets, source new products for investors internationally and more closely integrate Sukuk markets with their global counterparts.”

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