Today's Edition
A. SREENIVASA REDDY (ABU DHABI)
Commercial Bank International (CBI), an ADX-listed lender, has launched CBIx, a wholly owned subsidiary designed to explore and accelerate innovation across emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), tokenised assets, Web3, gaming, and the wider fintech ecosystem.
CBIx, headquartered in Dubai, operates as an independent digital lab, with a mandate to “bridge traditional finance with the next generation of digital innovation.” The new entity will serve as a platform to test, pilot, and commercialise new ideas that may be too early-stage or unconventional for a traditional bank to take on directly.
“Our vision is clear: to create meaningful connections between traditional finance and emerging technologies,” said Ala Aljayyusi, Managing Director of CBIx, in an interview with Aletihad. “CBIx is about experimenting with ideas, testing proof-of-concepts, piloting new solutions, and building partnerships that might redefine what banking can be.”
Aljayyusi, who previously served as Senior Vice President of Products & Segments at CBI, brings over two decades of banking experience with leadership roles at Deutsche Bank, DIFC, Barclays, Dubai Properties, and Mawarid Finance.
He said CBIx is not another crypto initiative but a much broader platform for digital transformation. “Digital assets are part of a wider Web3 landscape,” he explained. “Our real interest lies in tokenised real-world assets (RWAs)—turning illiquid assets into liquid ones and making liquid assets even more efficient and accessible.”
As part of this effort, CBIx has partnered with Ascend’s RWA Accelerator and Plume Network to explore how tokenisation can improve investment access, capital mobility, and ownership transparency.
“It’s not about chasing crypto—it’s about building the digital rails for the next era of asset innovation,” Aljayyusi added.
Among its first initiatives, CBIx is helping to establish the region’s first Money Market Fund in partnership with QNB. The fund provides exposure to short-term, low-risk money market instruments in tokenised form, offering real-time settlement, transparency, and enhanced liquidity, while remaining compliant with UAE regulations.
“CBIx will bring the right partners together—combining banking expertise, digital-asset infrastructure, and regulatory alignment,” Aljayyusi said. “The fund represents an important milestone in bridging traditional finance with digital assets.”
The new venture is also setting up a corporate venture capital arm to invest in high-potential startups. While declining to disclose investment figures, Aljayyusi said there is “sufficient capital to match the right innovation opportunities as they emerge,” adding that CBIx will back ventures that “demonstrate tangible value for the bank, its clients, and the broader innovation ecosystem.”
CBIx’s scope extends to the gaming industry, one of the fastest-growing digital economies in the MENA region, valued at about $2 billion. The subsidiary is exploring how gaming culture can inspire financial inclusion and redefine engagement models in banking. “Through collaborations within DIFC’s innovation ecosystem, we’re studying how gamer behaviour can inform new models of loyalty, literacy, and participation in formal finance,” Aljayyusi said.
In parallel, CBIx is working with the Al Farabi Innovation Hub to turn academic research into practical banking applications and to pilot AI-driven financial models. “CBIx is about turning vision into execution,” said Giovanni Everduin, Co-founder of CBIx. “It’s where new ideas are tested and scaled into solutions that serve real needs—whether tokenised assets, AI finance, or tailored products for new communities like gaming.”
Summing up CBIx’s mission, Aljayyusi said the initiative aims to make banking relevant for a digital generation. “The goal is simple: to connect with people who already live, earn, and interact in digital worlds.”
Operating independently but backed by CBI’s resources and heritage, CBIx represents the bank’s boldest step yet into digital finance, marking what Aljayyusi described as “the next chapter of innovation in CBI’s evolution—rooted in finance, built for the next wave of digital transformation.”
