Project XBY

Middle East & North Africa · GDP rank #25

United Arab Emirates

AE · AED @ 0.2723/USD

The UAE has built the most ambitious state-led payments programme in the Gulf — Aani instant payments live since 2023 (12.5m users by May 2026), Jaywan domestic card scheme past 10m cards ahead of mandated targets, Digital Dirham retail launched March 2026, and CBUAE remains an active mBridge participant. The 88% non-citizen labour-force structure makes outbound remittance — US$45.5bn in 2024, largely to India, Pakistan and the Philippines — the anchor use case.

Tab 08

Pulse

The preceding ~90 days of macro, regulation, product, funding and milestone events. Each item is primary-sourced; no trade-press echo.

  1. 2 weeks agolaunch

    CBUAE launches world-first sovereign financial cloud with Core42

    Central Bank of the UAE unveiled a nationally controlled financial cloud infrastructure, built with G42 subsidiary Core42, to host critical banking data and applications. Part of the wider Financial Infrastructure Transformation (FIT) programme; replaces selective use of hyperscaler clouds with a sovereign alternative for Tier-1 regulated workloads.

    • #cbuae
    • #fit-programme
    • #core42
    • #infrastructure

    Source: Khaleej Times

  2. 4 weeks agolaunch

    CBUAE, ICP and ADCB launch tourist digital bank-account opening service

    Tourist Identity initiative enables non-resident visitors to open digital bank accounts on arrival, with Aani and Jaywan integration. Joint launch between CBUAE, the Federal Authority for Identity and ADCB; closes a gap that had pushed visiting-foreign-worker remittance volume into informal channels.

    • #cbuae
    • #tourist-identity
    • #aani
    • #adcb

    Source: Gulf Today

  3. 6 weeks agomilestone

    Aani reaches 12.5m users with 3-second average instant transfer

    CBUAE confirmed Aani crossed 12.5m users in April 2026, with average end-to-end transfer settlement of three seconds. All major UAE banks integrated; QR, account alias and P2M flows live across the merchant fleet.

    • #aani
    • #instant-payments
    • #cbuae

    Source: Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE)

  4. 2 months agolaunch

    Aani-sarie bilateral instant corridor live — first GCC retail cross-border IPS

    First GCC cross-border retail instant-payment corridor live between UAE and Saudi Arabia; 5-second SLA with initial low-value cap. Pakistan (Raast), India (UPI) and Philippines (InstaPay) integrations on the 2026-27 roadmap.

    • #aani
    • #sarie
    • #cross-border
    • #gcc

    Source: Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE)

  5. 3 months agolaunch

    Digital Dirham retail goes live — CBUAE confirms public launch

    CBUAE retail Digital Dirham went live to the public in March 2026 after the multi-bank phased pilot. Supports P2P, cross-border settlement with Saudi Arabia, India and China (via mBridge), and integration with UAE Pass. First GCC retail CBDC in production.

    • #cbdc
    • #digital-dirham
    • #cbuae
    • #mBridge

    Source: Digital Dubai

  6. 3 months agoregulation

    AE Coin AED stablecoin moves from preliminary to full CBUAE licensing

    CBUAE moved the AE Coin AED-pegged stablecoin (FAB + International Holding Company) from preliminary approval to a full Payment Token Services authorisation, formalising the AED stablecoin perimeter. The decision turns AED-tokenisation from a regulatory question mark into a defined operating envelope.

    • #stablecoin
    • #cbuae
    • #ae-coin
    • #regulation

    Source: Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE)