UAE Trade Connect (UTC), an e& enterprise company and the first commercialised blockchain platform transforming trade finance in the UAE, unveiled its new brand identity, “haifin”, as part of its commitment to extend its innovative solutions beyond the UAE, aiming for a significant presence in APAC, MENA, and GCC regions.

The new brand name, “haifin”, reflects the platform's evolution and carries an ambitious roadmap to expand globally with its fraud-detection solution and further use cases to resolve current market challenges. The rebranding is symbolic of its vision as a leading fintech to connect and protect financial institutions for a more resilient ecosystem.

Salvador Anglada, CEO of e& enterprise, said: “This strategic rebranding reflects e& enterprise's dedication to nurturing scalable cloud-based solutions that drive substantial market impact by supporting and advancing the global and regional fintech space, paving the way for more inclusive, efficient, and secure financial services.”

Zul Javaid, CEO of haifin, said: “This rebranding reflects haifin’s mission to serve as the connective tissue in the financial industry. With a new name reflecting our core purpose as a fintech protecting financial institutions, haifin is set to replicate its UAE success in other countries within our region and beyond. We aspire to expand our cloud-native and blockchain-based Intellectual Property (IP) into new territories one country at a time.”

haifin’s solution can manage various types of trade-related documents, which are inspected, validated, and tested for authenticity in real time. Its proprietary technology ensures trust, transparency, and privacy between multiple organisations with a stack of leading-edge technologies deployed locally on e& enterprise’s E1Cloud platform. The robust system validates trade finance transactions, identifies duplication, and combats potential fraud in real time. These capabilities empower banks to make informed lending decisions, increase lending confidence and safeguard funds.

The haifin network has grown from seven banks in 2021 to 15 lending institutions comprising 13 major UAE banks and two fintechs, DP World Financial Services and Beehive. Banking members include Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), Al Masraf, Commercial Bank International, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD PJSC, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), Invest Bank, Mashreq Corporate & Investment Banking Group, National Bank of Fujairah, RAKBANK, and United Arab Bank, with several more in advanced discussions to join the consortium.

Since its commercial launch in 2021, the platform has inspected transactions worth more than AED 200 billion and identified potential frauds worth several millions of dirhams. The system handles over 4 million data points monthly, and its machine learning capability increases as the dataset grows each month.