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Visa, the global leader in digital payments, and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), a leading Islamic financial services group, announced today a strategic partnership to implement the Visa Threat Intelligence Platform (VTIP). This milestone makes ADIB the first bank globally to adopt and co-design this cutting-edge platform.

VTIP is a next-generation security solution that converges cyber threat intelligence and payment-related fraud data into a unified platform. This integration empowers financial institutions to detect risks at an early stage and respond with unprecedented speed and efficiency.

Strengthening Digital Resilience and Security

This collaboration significantly bolsters ADIB’s efforts to enhance cybersecurity, combat fraud, and elevate proactive prevention measures. Building on a long-standing partnership between ADIB and Visa, the initiative reflects the bank's broader strategy of investing in advanced technologies to foster customer trust, protect digital services, and support the UAE’s vision of building a secure and sustainable digital economy.

As cyber threats continue to evolve in complexity, the need for smarter, proactive solutions has never been more critical. By seamlessly integrating cyber threat intelligence with payment data, VTIP provides robust capabilities for the early detection of risks and rapid incident response, ultimately protecting consumers and mitigating financial exposure.

The platform has already been integrated into ADIB’s comprehensive anti-fraud ecosystem. It equips the bank’s cybersecurity, anti-fraud, and risk management teams with a holistic view of emerging threats. This preemptive intelligence accelerates risk discovery, streamlines the investigation of suspicious activities, and delivers superior protection against sophisticated cyber threats and modern fraud tactics.

"The early adoption of Visa Threat Intelligence reflects ADIB’s commitment to innovation and delivering a secure, reliable banking experience for our customers," said Amit Malhotra, Global Head of Retail Banking at ADIB. "By enhancing our capacity to detect and respond to payment risks at an early stage, we continue to elevate our customer protection standards while supporting a seamless, secure, and resilient digital banking journey."

Pioneering Cybersecurity Innovation

Today’s announcement underscores ADIB's continued leadership in cybersecurity innovation. Earlier this year, the bank hosted one of the region’s largest cybersecurity innovation competitions, bringing together technology startups to develop next-generation solutions aimed at reinforcing the financial sector's resilience. This initiative is part of ADIB’s wider strategy to foster collaboration among industry players, tech partners, and innovators to effectively tackle advanced cyber risks.

VTIP: Enterprise-Grade Protection

The VTIP utilizes the exact same cybersecurity capabilities that Visa relies on to protect its own global network. To contextualize the scale of this defense, Visa successfully combats approximately 90 million cyberattacks and 11 million phishing emails every month across more than 200 countries and territories, operating under a strict "zero breaches, zero outages" philosophy.

Developed and battle-tested by Visa’s Defensive Operations team, the VTIP provides clients with the same caliber of intelligence used to safeguard the world’s largest payment network.

Executive Perspectives

Salima Gutieva, Vice President and Country Manager for the UAE at Visa, commented: "VTIP adds a new dimension to how we support financial institutions in the UAE, helping them enhance operational resilience, protect consumers, and stay ahead of emerging risks. ADIB’s early adoption of this platform highlights the vital collaboration needed to support the UAE’s vision for a secure and inclusive payment ecosystem."

Walter Lironi, Senior Vice President and Head of Value-Added Services for Central Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA) at Visa, added: "Cyberattacks are becoming more frequent, highly targeted, and harder for organizations to detect early—and fraud is often a direct consequence. VTIP helps financial institutions spot these threats faster by combining cyber threat intelligence and payment data into a unified platform, providing clearer, actionable insights to mitigate risks before they escalate into fraud."

As digital banking continues to evolve, ADIB remains steadfast in its commitment to investing in advanced cybersecurity capabilities, forging strategic partnerships, and driving innovations that ensure operational resilience, protect client assets, and cement trust in the UAE’s rapidly expanding digital financial ecosystem.