Headed for the Metaverse: CBI joins the virtual world

Commercial Bank International, a UAE-based corporate and retail bank announced on July 22, 2022, that it is going to open a virtual location in metaverse making it the first bank in UAE to do so.

Ali Sultan Rakkad Al Amri, CEO, CBI, said, “We are proud to be the first ever bank in the UAE and among the first innovative banks in the Middle East region to bring the Metaverse experience to our customers and people, which we believe is a strong testament to our strong support and belief in the country’s vision in being a leader in innovation worldwide.”

This move is in line with the digitizing goal of UAE’s ‘Dubai metaverse Strategy’ which aims at inculcating various crucial sectors into the metaverse and banking and fintech can be seen as one of them.

Amri added “To keep pace in an increasingly digital economy and re-invent customer experience with a digitally driven perspective, we believe that the financial services sector must take some courageous and innovative steps, and we wanted to take part in this journey and become the first mover through an immersive Metaverse experience. We aim to enhance the integration of real and digital worlds, and we will continue to implement new digitization initiatives and advance technologies to serve our customers better.”

CBI is among one the early adapter bank in the middle east region to establish a virtual Metaverse presence in Decentraland, a notable blockchain-based world. Decentraland also hosts Warba bank, a Kuwait-based Islamic bank. Warba also has a site in the sandbox showing a strong footing in the metaverse.

Sandbox and Decentraland seem to be the preferred choice for most banking and fintech companies in the metaverse. Decentraland is a browser-based 3D virtual world platform. Users can purchase virtual plots of land as NFTs on the site using the MANA cryptocurrency, which runs on the Ethereum blockchain.

Aside from the MENA region, many banks are getting their hands dirty in the metaverse globally. JP Morgan owns land in Decentraland, specifically Metajuku, a virtual mall. For a long time, London-based HSBC has been playing in the sandbox. Standard Chartered has also recently purchased land in Decentraland.

Experimenting this early on, these banks and fintech companies see great potential for growth in the banking sector via Metaverse and capturing any opportunism that this tech has to offer.