Emirates NBD issues its first DLT enabled Digital Bond worth $272 million
Emirates NBD, a banking group in the Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye (MENAT) region, has issued a $272 million (AED 1 billion) in 3-year fixed-rate Digitally Native Notes (DNNs) the first-ever AED-denominated digital bond utilizing DLT ( Distributed Ledger Technology) and the largest public digital bond issued in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The digital bond will be listed on Nasdaq Dubai ensuring transparent price discovery, secondary market access and alignment with international market standards, enhancing investor confidence. This will mark the first digitally native bond to be listed on the exchange.
The bond was issued via a public offering under Emirates NBD’s Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) Program, leveraging distributed ledger technology (DLT) on Euroclear’s Digital Financial Market Infrastructure (D-FMI) platform to digitize the bond lifecycle.
Euroclear’s D-FMI facilitates the issuance, distribution and settlement of fully digital international securities using distributed ledger technology (DLT) and integrates seamlessly with established secondary market services and trading venues so investors retain access to familiar liquidity channels.
As per the press release, the bond attracted a diverse investor base. Emirates NBD Capital, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Mashreq and Standard Chartered acted as Joint Lead Managers, while Emirates NBD Capital and Standard Chartered acted as the Joint Digitally Native Note Structurers. Citi acted as the Issuing and Paying Agent.
Ahmed Al Qassim, Group Head of Wholesale Banking, Emirates NBD, explained that the digital bond issuance is a landmark event not only for Emirates NBD but also the region’s debt markets. He added, ” The UAE continues to set new benchmarks for digital assets and distributed ledger technology throughout the Middle East. We are confident that the transaction will enhance operational efficiency, speed up settlement cycles and strengthen transparency and security for investors, while building a more resilient digital capital markets ecosystem in the UAE and the region.”
The CEO of Nasdaq Dubai an Dubai Financial Market, Hamed Ali, stated that having AED denominated digitally native bond on trading on Nasda Dubai demonstrated the maturity of digital debt market, in a regulated internationally aligned exchange environment, while maintaining transparency, liquidity, an investor confidence.
Additionally Bernard Ferran, Chief Commercial Officer, Euroclear Group, believes that this transaction will deliver real value for clients and their support to Emirates NBD is part of their ambition to broaden their growth in Middle East. He adds, “It shows how clients can harness innovation without sacrificing reliability, benefiting from faster execution while maintaining seamless investor access, deep liquidity, and alignment with established market standards. By combining efficiency with trusted infrastructure, digital issuance preserves established market access and liquidity while streamlining execution.”
Qatar National Bank was the first bank in MENA to issue a blockchain enable digital bond
In November 2025, Qatar National Bank (QNB) launched its first-ever native blockchain enabled digital bond issuance, raising $500 million in what is being described as the largest transaction of its kind by a financial institution in the Middle East and Africa.
The digital bond issuance was powered by HSBC Orion Blockchain solution. This step came as part of QNB’s strategy to tap new sources of stable funding from new markets with digitally innovative funding sources. HSBC acted as a sole bookrunner on the transaction, in what it called a further step in its ambition to bring end-to-end blockchain-based solutions to its global client base.
Prior to that QNB Group, Standard Chartered and DMZ Finance, an RWA tokenization infrastructure provider, launched the Dubai International Financial Centre’s (DIFC) first regulated tokenized money market fund, the QCD Money Market Fund (units in QCDT).
