Ziina has secured a Retail Payment Services licence and exchange authorisation from the UAE central bank, adding to its stored value licence.
UAE-based financial platform Ziina has obtained a Retail Payment Services Category III licence from the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE). The CBUAE has also authorised Ziina to carry out Exchange Business Category IV activities under its existing Stored Value Facility licence. The approvals complete Ziina’s latest phase of regulatory licensing with the CBUAE and give it the basis to expand the services it offers consumers and merchants through a single platform, covering receiving and holding money, spending, domestic payments, and international transfers.
Scope of the new authorisations
Ziina received its Stored Value Facility licence in June 2024, allowing it to launch its digital wallet. The new Retail Payment Services Category III licence extends its regulated activities to merchant acquiring, payment aggregation, and domestic fund transfers. It also provides full regulatory authorisation for Ziina’s merchant acceptance products, including payment links, QR payments, Tap-to-Pay, and its online payment gateway.
The exchange authorisation granted under Ziina’s Stored Value Facility licence, allows the company to offer international money transfers through digital channels, including directly through the Ziina app. Together, the three authorisations bring wallets, merchant payments, and cross-border transfers under one regulated provider.
Growth in UAE digital payments
Faisal Toukan, Co-Founder and CEO of Ziina, stated that the licences give the company the regulatory framework to build faster and expand further. According to Toukan, people currently use different apps and providers for different parts of their financial lives, and Ziina aims to bring more of these services into one platform, from spending and holding money to sending it abroad, giving users more control over their finances. He added that the company’s ambition is to take what it builds in the UAE to the wider Arab world.
Ziina serves more than 500,000 customers a year, processes more than USD 1.5 billion in annualised payment volume, and is used by one in ten UAE SMEs. The wider market is also growing: according to the CBUAE’s Annual Report 2025, retail transfers processed through the UAE Funds Transfer System reached AED 9.9 trillion (USD 2.7 trillion) across 114.9 million transactions in 2025, with value up 19.9% and volume up 17.8% year-on-year.
