Adyen has obtained a Retail Payment Services Category II license from the Central Bank of the UAE.
The license follows Adyen's presence in the UAE, which began in 2020, where it has processed payments for businesses including Careem, Ellington Properties, Gargash Group, Noon, and Ziina.
The Category II license gives Adyen control over local settlements without dependence on third-party providers. This is expected to support oversight of compliance and settlement processes and to align payment operations more closely with merchants based in the UAE. According to the official press release, beyond daily operations, the license is intended to support further development of Adyen's local capabilities in fraud prevention, emerging payment methods, and Embedded Finance, as well as future applications such as agentic AI.
Mariëtte Swart, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at Adyen, said the company has consistently prioritised a long term approach to responsible innovation, noting that serving large enterprises and platforms requires infrastructure that removes intermediaries and reduces third-party risk. According to Swart, owning this infrastructure allows for fewer risks, greater control, and the capacity to scale operations. It was also added that the UAE license represents a continuation of Adyen's focus on compliant growth in the region, with future expansion expected to remain closely aligned with regulatory frameworks.
Regional context
Daumantas Grigaravicius, Head of Middle East at Adyen, described the UAE as an active market for digital commerce and said the license represents a step in the company's growth in the region. He noted that the license allows Adyen to offer additional control, reliability, and capability through its local operations while maintaining its single platform model. Grigaravicius linked the development to wider efforts in the UAE to expand its digital economy.
With the license in place, Adyen's operational structure in the UAE shifts from reliance on third-party arrangements to a model in which the company holds direct regulatory standing with the CBUAE. This is expected to affect how the company supports both domestically based and international businesses operating in the UAE, particularly in relation to settlement timelines and compliance reporting. The CBUAE's Retail Payment Services framework, under which the Category II license falls, regulates entities involved in payment account issuance, payment initiation, and merchant acquiring activities within the country.
Adyen has not disclosed specific transaction volumes or revenue figures associated with its UAE operations in connection with this license.
