Open Finance infrastructure provider Spare has announced that it has obtained In-Principle Approval (IPA) from the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) to operate under the region’s Open Finance framework.
This achievement positions Spare among the first cohort of companies focusing on advancing toward full regulatory authorisation under the UAE’s Open Finance framework. Additionally, the IPA underlines the company’s commitment to secure, compliant, and user-centric financial development across the country.
Spare’s expansion strategy across the UAE
As part of Spare’s regional development strategy, the UAE solidifies its approach to joining new markets with a defined regulatory framework. The choice to enter the UAE follows the Central Bank’s decision to establish the Open Finance Regulation. As detailed by Spare’s representatives, the company sees the region as a strategically important market for Open Finance, having a clear framework and substantial momentum in digital financial services. The IPA supports Spare’s mission to deliver technology that assists in the long-term development of Open Finance across the UAE, with the company taking an innovative approach to its offering.
Furthermore, Spare centres its efforts on equipping merchants with a secure and unified API platform for financial account-to-account (A2A) payments and data access, allowing capabilities such as recurring payments, future-dated payments, account aggregation, identity verification, and risk assessment, among others. Additionally, Spare is licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain and provides its services in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Kuwait, offering Open Finance solutions that enable account aggregation, Open Banking payments, and financial data connectivity.
To further advance its operations, Spare also secured USD 3 million at the end of 2023, with the company planning to leverage the capital to acquire talent, scale its presence across KSA, as well as invest in marketing procedures. Since then, Spare has extended its capabilities and entered additional markets, focusing on meeting the needs, demands, and preferences of its users.
