Tabby has secured a Stored Value Facilities licence from the Central Bank of the UAE, expanding its financial product offering beyond credit.
This licence will be authorising the company to hold customer funds and introduce a range of new financial products, including spending accounts, payment cards, and money management tools.
Moreover, the initiative marks a significant step in the UAE-based company's broader strategy to evolve from a BNPL provider into a full-service financial services platform. Tabby already serves millions of customers in the UAE, and the SVF authorisation enables it to integrate everyday financial services, including spending, sending, and managing money, directly into its existing platform.
Dual-market regulatory footprint
The UAE licence consolidates Tabby's regulatory standing across its two primary markets. In Saudi Arabia, the company received a BNPL licence from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) in 2025 and subsequently acquired Tweeq, a SAMA-licensed digital wallet. Together, these authorisations give Tabby a direct regulatory foundation in both countries, allowing it to develop and deploy financial products across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on its own infrastructure rather than through third-party licensed entities.
This dual licensing position is strategically relevant in a region where regulators have been progressively formalising oversight of digital financial services. The CBUAE has expanded its regulatory frameworks for stored value and payment service providers in recent years, and obtaining an SVF licence places Tabby within the regulated segment of the UAE's growing digital finance market.
Hosam Arab, CEO and Co-Founder of Tabby, noted that the licence will enable the company to serve customers beyond credit and to build a more comprehensive financial experience on a platform they already use regularly.
The move reflects a pattern seen across the BNPL sector globally, where providers that built large consumer bases through instalment credit are now seeking broader financial services licences to deepen engagement and diversify revenue. In the GCC specifically, the convergence of a young, digitally active population and regulatory frameworks that increasingly accommodate non-bank financial services providers has made the region a competitive arena for consumer fintech expansion.
Tabby's progression from BNPL to a multi-product financial platform mirrors similar strategic pivots by other regional and international players, though the company's scale and existing customer relationships in Saudi Arabia and the UAE provide a foundation that newer entrants to either market would find difficult to replicate quickly.
