Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) has joined the Commercial Bank Money Token (CBMT) initiative, becoming the first lender from outside Europe to take part in a European effort to move regulated bank deposits onto digital rails.
The bank announced the move on September 29.
CBD will link the European CBMT ecosystem with the Europe-Gulf trade corridor, with the aim of giving corporate clients faster and more transparent cross-border settlement. The bank brings more than five decades of corporate and trade finance experience in the UAE.
The initiative is led by Die Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft and backed by banks including Commerzbank, DZ Bank, Helaba, UniCredit, ABN AMRO, BNP Paribas and DNB. It allows banks to settle corporate payments using tokenised commercial bank money on distributed ledger technology. Unlike stablecoins issued outside the banking system, these tokens remain a regulated deposit on the issuing bank's balance sheet and carry the same prudential standards as traditional deposits.
The network has grown steadily. A sandbox launched in Frankfurt in November 2025, building on a 2024 proof of concept. This year, participants completed the first live multi-bank deposit token transfers with industrial corporates, and DNB added the Norwegian krone alongside the euro, US dollar and Japanese yen.
CBD will first onboard to the sandbox, working with participating banks and technical providers UDPN and GFT. It plans to explore cross-border corporate payments, trade settlement, treasury operations and working capital optimisation along the Europe-Gulf corridor. The sandbox activities follow regulatory requirements and do not represent a commitment to commercial launch.
CBD Chief Executive Dr. Bernd van Linder described the move as a natural step in the bank's digital transformation strategy. Claus George of DZ BANK, speaking for the CBMT Working Group, said the addition supports a vision of a multi-issuer, multi-currency, multi-chain ecosystem.
News Source: Ogilvy
