The UAE is modernizing its payment infrastructure across multiple fronts. Aani for instant person-to-person transfers. Jaywan as a domestic card scheme. Regulated crypto-fiat rails through partnerships like CoinMENA-Standard Chartered and Binance-ADCB. For fintechs and banks operating in the Gulf, the landscape is shifting quickly.
Three Infrastructure Changes, One Direction
The UAE's financial sector has been building toward this moment for years. The Central Bank of the UAE has pushed through a series of infrastructure upgrades that, taken together, change how money moves through the country's financial system. Three stand out this quarter.
Aani is the UAE's instant payment platform, launched by the CBUAE in partnership with Al Etihad Payments. It lets individuals and businesses send money in real time using just a phone number or email. No account number needed. Aani operates 24/7 and settles transactions in seconds. The platform has been gaining traction steadily, and explainer content about how it works has been drawing strong engagement on video channels.
Jaywan is the UAE's domestic payment card scheme. It is designed to reduce the country's reliance on international card networks by giving banks and merchants a locally governed alternative for debit and prepaid card transactions. Commercial Bank of Dubai joined the early rollout in July 2026, announcing prepaid card products built on the Jaywan standard (Gulf Business, July 20, 2026). For merchants, domestic schemes typically mean lower interchange fees. For the central bank, it means more direct control over the payment infrastructure.
Regulated crypto-fiat rails are the third piece. In June 2026, CoinMENA partnered with Standard Chartered to enable fiat payment rails within the UAE, letting users move between digital assets and traditional currency through a regulated banking partner (FinanceFeeds, June 17, 2026). Around the same time, Binance collaborated with Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank to enable direct dirham bank transfers, meaning UAE residents can move money between their ADCB accounts and Binance without routing through an intermediary (AGBI, June 5, 2026). Both moves signal that the UAE is treating digital assets as an integrated part of the payment system, not a separate experiment.
Open Finance Through Nebras
Underpinning all of this is the CBUAE's open finance framework, delivered through a centralized API hub called Nebras.
Nebras is the technical backbone of the UAE's open finance push, operating under the CBUAE's centralized API framework. It standardizes how banks expose customer data and payment initiation services to authorized third parties. For banks, Nebras compliance is mandatory. For fintechs, it means a single integration point rather than building separate connections to every bank in the country.
The CBUAE completed Project Aperta in June 2026, which tested cross-border open finance interoperability with markets including Hong Kong, Brazil, and the UK (Economy Middle East, June 17, 2026). That work validated that the UAE's framework can connect with foreign open finance systems, important for any fintech that wants to use UAE payment infrastructure as a gateway into the broader Gulf region.
What This Means for Fintechs Entering the UAE
The UAE has one of the most active fintech licensing environments in the region. The CBUAE issued payment licenses to Revolut in June 2026, clearing the way for a full retail launch (Gulf Business, June 17, 2026). The DIFC and ADGM free zones continue to attract international fintechs with independent legal frameworks and streamlined regulation.
But getting licensed is only the first step. Operating in the UAE means integrating with the infrastructure the CBUAE has put in place:
Your payment flows need to be Aani-ready if you are handling domestic transfers or disbursements. That means supporting the UAE's instant payment standard rather than routing through older batch systems.
Your card products should consider Jaywan compatibility alongside the international card networks. Domestic scheme adoption is early, but it is where the central bank is directing the market.
If you handle digital assets, you need banking partners that support regulated fiat rails - the CoinMENA-Standard Chartered and Binance-ADCB partnerships set the template for how crypto and traditional finance connect under CBUAE supervision.
And your data-sharing architecture needs to speak Nebras if you are accessing bank customer data or initiating payments through the open finance framework.
A Coherent System Taking Shape
The UAE is unusual in that it is upgrading multiple layers of its payment infrastructure simultaneously. Most markets tackle real-time payments first, then card schemes, then crypto regulation. Each as a separate initiative years apart. The UAE is compressing that timeline.
For fintechs, the takeaway is practical: the window for building UAE-specific integrations is now. The infrastructure standards are solidifying. The institutions that get their technology layers right early (connecting to Aani, Jaywan, Nebras, and the regulated crypto rails) will have a structural advantage as the market continues to grow.