Emirates NBD Group, the largest bank in its home country of the United Arab Emirates, and one of the leading banking groups in the Middle East, has been named by the country’s regulator as a general clearing member for the UAE’s equity markets.

The UAE’s Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) has approved the local banking giant to enable ADX and DFM members to process their clearing obligations for the trades executed on the exchange with Emirates NBD.

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NBD is also among the few clearing banks of DGCX, the Middle East’s largest derivatives market, for settling the accounts of its members. The bank is the first entity to get the status of general clearing member after meeting the regulatory requirements.

Trading Members of the UAE’s stock markets and their clients will benefit from secured settlements and capital efficiency afforded to them via margin offsets and a wide range of collateral compared to any other CCPs in the region.

In addition, the agreement will allow market participants to use a range of financially and operationally attractive service bundling, bringing increased solidity to the UAE’s stock markets and its trading members.

Emirates NBD is the largest bank in the United Arab Emirates by deposits, one of the top 5 banks by assets in the Arab Gulf region, and one of the top 10 banks in the Middle East by assets value.

Highlighting the significance of the move, Suvo Sarkar, Senior EVP & Group Head – Retail Banking & Wealth Management at Emirates NBD, said: “We are delighted to be the first approved General Clearing Member in the UAE, a reflection of ‘SCA’s faith in our capacity and capabilities to provide trusted services to the UAE’s financial markets. Our operational expansion to become a clearing member will see us take a central role in the UAE’s equity markets as we offer Trading Members a range of services to manage securities market transactions.”