LuLu Money and Endava Launch Digit9 Cross-Border Payments in UAE

LuLu Money Singapore, a subsidiary of LuLu Financial Holding in Abu Dhabi known for its trusted cross-border payment services, has introduced a cutting-edge digital payment solution called Digit9 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and beyond. This innovative cross-border payments platform, developed in collaboration with the global digital transformation provider Endava, marks a significant step towards enhancing the digital payment ecosystem.

Digit9, designed as a Remittance-as-a-Service (RaaS) product, leverages technology to promote financial flexibility, reliability, and transparency. It empowers banks, FinTech companies, and financial institutions (FIs) to seamlessly execute real-time multi-currency remittances across a vast global network of more than 2,000 partners.

The initial launch of Digit9 is taking place in the UAE in partnership with LuLu Exchange, the licensed partner in the country. This platform adheres to Open Banking standards, making it accessible for a wide range of financial institutions to meet the growing demand for a mature cross-border payments system. Companies can integrate Digit9’s core features into their financial applications and organizational workflows, allowing for convenient white-labeling and embedding.

Joseph Cleetus, AVP of Business Transformation at LuLu Financial Holdings, expressed the company’s ambition to introduce Digit9 to the MENA market first, stating, “Through Digit9, we aim to democratize remittances, enabling financial institutions across the spectrum to build powerful cross-border payment solutions without the prohibitive costs and complexities associated with establishing a robust underlying infrastructure.”

Cleetus also highlighted their partnership with Endava, praising their expertise in enabling digital acceleration and global best practices in product development.

Digit9 boasts impressive capabilities, with the ability to handle more than 300 transactions per second across its extensive global partner network. Endava’s solution architecture offers three key functionalities: serving as a white-label solution for payment distribution networks, enabling organizations to Build Your Own Network (BYON) and configure correspondent banks, and functioning as a Managed Treasury Service that offers real-time foreign exchange (FX) rates through its analytics engine, experienced FX dealers, and automated market-making and liquidity pool managers.

The development of this leading-edge FinTech platform was facilitated by The Endava Adaptive Model (TEAM), a proven framework that streamlines and accelerates software development. David Boast, General Manager, UAE at Endava, emphasized the transformative potential of Digit9 in revolutionizing cross-border payments in the UAE and the broader MENA region. He noted that financial institutions and organizations can leverage Digit9 to create impactful applications catering to the remittance needs of the region’s significant expatriate population.