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The UAE is in an intense build-out phase under the CBUAE Financial Infrastructure Transformation (FIT) programme and National Payment Systems Strategy (NPSS): the Aani instant-payment platform (Oct 2023, mobile-number/QR/request-to-pay), the Jaywan domestic card scheme (2024-25), an Open Finance Regulation (published 15 April 2024) enabling pay-by-bank, and the Digital Dirham CBDC, now legislated as legal tender under CB Law 2025 with a first government transaction executed 11 Nov 2025 (mBridge/Aber lineage). BNPL, embedded finance and tap-to-pay (SoftPOS) are rapidly expanding.
Outlook
The Digital Dirham builds on the FIT/NPSS programme alongside Aani instant payments (launched October 2023) and the Open Finance Regulation published 15 April 2024, which together underpin pay-by-bank capability.
Product Innovation & Market Development
Four AED-pegged stablecoins now hold CBUAE approval at varying stages: AE Coin, Zand AED, DDSC and RAKBank AED. AE Coin, licensed in December 2024, provides the clearest evidence of consumer-scale product-market activity built on the PTSR framework: it is now live with an integration with telecom operator e& for phone-bill payments and a USDU settlement rail. This demonstrates that the PTSR's operational-phase entry is producing genuine downstream product activity rather than remaining a purely regulatory milestone.
A distinct, separate development is the emergence of a second UAE legal track drawing DeFi protocols, decentralised exchanges and Web3 platforms into the same regulatory perimeter as existing payment-token and virtual-asset rules. This is reported to carry a transition window closing in September 2026, though the specific instrument driving this expansion has not been independently confirmed against primary regulatory text this cycle, warranting an Uncertain rather than Probable confidence tier on the precise mechanics involved. If confirmed, this would represent a substantial widening of the UAE's regulated product perimeter beyond centralised payment-token issuance into decentralised, on-chain product categories.
Outlook
The September 2026 transition-window closure for the DeFi/DEX/Web3 legal track is the key near-term marker. Separately, watch for whether additional AED-pegged stablecoins beyond the current four move through CBUAE approval, and for whether other UAE banks or telecom-adjacent players follow AE Coin's e& integration model for consumer-scale stablecoin distribution.
1 earlier distinct update(s)
Product Innovation & Market Development
The CBUAE's Open Finance Regulation has moved from framework into live implementation this cycle via Nebras Open Finance LLC, which operates the regulation's API hub and trust framework. Nebras has launched a consumer-facing brand, Al Tareq, covering account aggregation, lending, insurance comparison and onboarding use cases, and the regulation's role definitions for Payment Account, PSP and TSP participants cross-reference the Stored Value Facilities Regulation, tying the open-finance build-out directly to the UAE's existing nonbank e-money licensing architecture rather than treating it as a separate regulatory track.
The practical significance of this development is that open finance in the UAE is being built on top of an already-licensed SVF/e-money base rather than requiring a wholly new participant category, which should lower the operational barrier for existing licensed payment institutions to participate in account-aggregation and lending-adjacent open-finance use cases relative to a jurisdiction building open finance from a blank regulatory slate.
Outlook
The marker to watch is uptake of the Al Tareq brand and the API hub by banks and licensed payment institutions beyond Nebras itself, which would indicate whether the CBUAE's open-finance infrastructure investment is translating into a genuinely multi-participant ecosystem rather than a single-operator implementation.
Sources and findings (4)
- T1https://www.centralbank.ae/en/our-operations/payments-and-settlements/retrieved
- T3https://remit.ae/uae-money-movementretrieved
- T3https://thepaypers.com/crypto-web3-and-cbdc/news/uae-central-bank-approves-first-usd-backed-stablecoin-under-ptsrretrieved
- T3https://tracxn.com/d/companies/ziina/__0IibwCkPb7vnIfS1nr7vHAKCS3JL6O86zYNNg7WzDhYretrieved