The Kuwait Finance House (KFH), is the first Arab bank to join RippleNet to provide instant and secure cross-border money transfers within seconds, with end-to-end visibility over the journey of the payment. Ripple is expanding fast in the UAE region, as RAK Bank, also known as the National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah, an emirate in the UAE, became a RippleNet member in September to enable instant, frictionless and secure money transfer services. In February, another Middle Eastern money transfer and forex firms, the UAE Exchange, also joined the blockchain network developed by San Francisco-based Ripple. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA), the defacto central bank of Saudi Arabia, has also partnered Ripple to pilot Ripple’s xCurrent among a number of regional banks.