Fintech & digital payments rules in Yemen (2026)

CBY issued Mobile Banking Regulations on 11 Dec 2014 (Circular No. 11 of 2014) after a ~two-year process with World Bank/CGAP/GIZ/USAID support, allowing banks, money-exchange companies and other non-bank institutions to obtain CBY licenses to issue e-money and manage e-payments; licensed banks may not issue e-money exceeding 15% of paid-up capital plus statutory reserve without CBY approval.

Since 2015 the central bank has split into rival institutions: CBY-Aden adheres to the pre-war legal framework and licensing approach, while CBY-Sana'a has moved toward a minimally regulated, nonbank-led e-money model, producing two competing regulatory regimes within one country.

On 26 June 2024 CBY-Aden issued a circular prohibiting all banks, exchange and transfer institutions from dealing with unlicensed entities, wallets and e-payment services — naming wallets such as Cash, Floosak, Saba Cash, e-Rial, Jib and Mobile Money — underscoring that operating without a CBY license is unlawful.

CBY-Aden maintains a payment-systems function, and a World Bank-supported Yemen Financial Market Infrastructure and Inclusion Project (Board-approved 17 June 2025, effective 1 Sept 2025) aims to build core payment infrastructure and boost financial inclusion — indicating a national instant-payment rail is still being developed rather than in force.

Authorities in Sana'a have promoted an 'e-Rial' digital money projection and parallel electronic-payment services that CBY-Aden treats as unlicensed, reflecting that digital-payment regulation is also a contested instrument of monetary authority between the two sides.

Yemen remains a heavily cash-based economy with an underdeveloped, undercapitalized banking sector and low financial inclusion; there is no open-banking regime and no specific Buy-Now-Pay-Later regulation, with the e-money licensing rules being the only dedicated digital-payments framework.