Digital Payments & Fintech · UAE
Digital Payments & Fintech - UAE
The UAE operates one of the most comprehensive digital payments and fintech licensing regimes in the Middle East, anchored by the RPSCS Regulation (2021) which requires CBUAE licensing for all retail payment service providers across nine service categories. Federal Decree-Law No. 6 of 2025 consolidated and expanded the regulatory perimeter to capture technology providers facilitating licensed financial activities, including DeFi platforms and virtual-asset payment services. The CBUAE's Financial Infrastructure Transformation (FIT) programme underpins a live national instant-payment rail (Aani), a forthcoming open finance framework, and a planned central bank digital currency.
The Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes Regulation, effective 15 July 2021, mandates CBUAE licensing for nine categories of retail payment services — including e-money issuance, merchant acquiring, payment aggregation, domestic and cross-border fund transfer, payment initiation, and payment account information — under four tiered licence categories (I–IV). No entity may provide these services without a licence or exemption.
Effective 16 September 2025, this consolidated banking law expands CBUAE's regulatory perimeter to any person who, by any medium or technology, carries out or facilitates a licensed financial activity — expressly capturing DeFi, dApps, and virtual-asset payment platforms. All affected entities have a one-year reconciliation period to obtain requisite licences.
Aani, operated by Al Etihad Payments (a CBUAE subsidiary) under the FIT Programme, is the UAE's national 24/7 instant payment platform. By 2025 it surpassed 12.5 million users with a sixfold year-on-year increase in transfers, connecting 74 licensed financial institutions via mobile number, email, or QR code in under 10 seconds.
Since December 2023, BNPL providers must either act as agents of licensed banks or finance companies (subject to CBUAE approval) or obtain a 'Restricted License Finance Company' licence. Consumer safeguards include a maximum credit ceiling of AED 20,000 (or 3 months' net income, whichever is lower), total fees capped at 30% of the loan amount, and mandatory credit bureau checks for facilities above AED 5,000.
The Dubai International Financial Centre (regulated by the DFSA) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (regulated by the FSRA) maintain independent common-law fintech and payment-institution licensing frameworks with capital requirements of AED 2–5 million for payment services, plus regulatory sandboxes. The FSRA finalised fiat-referenced token rules effective 1 January 2026.
The CBUAE's dedicated Payment Token Services Regulation establishes three licence/registration categories: Payment Token Issuance, Payment Token Conversion, and Payment Token Custody and Transfer. The 2025 Banking Law reinforces this by explicitly subjecting crypto-facilitated payment services to CBUAE licensing jurisdiction.
Machine-assisted translation · verified 5/24/2026 · orientation, not legal advice. English version →