Yalla payment services approval brings the UAE closer to cashless finance

July 28, 2026
3 min read

PUBLISHED BY ICN PRESS

Yalla Financial Solutions received an In-Principle Approval from the Central Bank of the UAE for a Retail Payment Services Category II License.
The approval falls under the CBUAE Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes Regulation and is not the final license yet.
CEO and Founder Waleed Sadek called it a milestone in the company’s journey toward secure payment infrastructure.
Once Yalla meets the remaining requirements, it can expand its payment capabilities in the UAE.

The Yalla payment services approval moves a growing fintech one step closer to serving customers across the UAE. On Monday, Yalla Financial Solutions said the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) had granted it an In-Principle Approval for a Retail Payment Services Category II License. The nod falls under the CBUAE Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes Regulation. This is not the final license yet. It signals the company has cleared an early, serious gate.

What the Yalla payment services approval means for you

For anyone who taps a phone to pay for coffee or sends money home at the end of the month, licensing like this matters more than it sounds. A Category II License lets a firm handle regulated payment activity under close supervision. Behind the paperwork sits a simple promise. Your money should move safely, and someone should answer for it if something goes wrong.

The Yalla payment services approval signals that the company met the CBUAE’s early conditions. Full authorisation still depends on finishing the remaining requirements. Once that happens, Yalla can build out its payment capabilities inside one of the most active digital finance markets anywhere.

A milestone in Yalla’s journey

Waleed Sadek, CEO and Founder of Yalla Financial Solutions, framed the moment plainly. He said receiving the In-Principle Approval reflects the company’s commitment to building trusted, secure, and innovative payment infrastructure in one of the world’s most advanced digital economies. Sadek added that the UAE has become a global hub for financial innovation through a forward-looking regulatory environment and a clear vision for digital transformation.

“We are proud to be part of this journey and look forward to working closely with the Central Bank of the UAE to complete the remaining regulatory requirements and obtain the final Retail Payment Services Category II License,” Sadek said.

Why the timing fits

The Yalla payment services approval lands as the country pushes hard toward cashless living. Dubai’s Cashless Strategy targets 90 percent of transactions going digital, according to Digital Dubai, and analysts at Mordor Intelligence value the UAE fintech market at about 52 billion dollars in 2026. Numbers like these describe a shift you can feel at the checkout counter, in the taxi, at the corner shop.

More UAE digital payments flow through licensed players each year. That growth pulls in global names and homegrown firms alike. Earlier this year, Revolut secured its own In-Principle Approval for the same Category II license, a sign of how crowded and serious this space has become.

What comes next for Yalla

The road from In-Principle Approval to a live service runs through compliance, testing, and final sign-off. As a payment service provider, Yalla must satisfy the CBUAE on safeguards for customer funds, risk controls, and reporting. None of that is quick. All of it protects the person on the other side of the transaction.

The Yalla payment services approval is a beginning, not a finish line. If the company clears the final steps, everyday users could gain another trusted way to pay, send, and receive. For a market racing toward a cashless future, one more supervised option is welcome news.

CBUAE’s Financial Stability Report shows UAE bank assets up 17.1% in 2025

CBUAE’s Financial Stability Report puts numbers behind something many people in the UAE already sense: that banks are lending more freely than they did a few years ago. UAE banking sector assets grew 17.1 percent in 2025 to AED5.3 trillion, worth roughly $1.44 trillion. Loans rose faster still, up 17.8 percent. Most of that credit stayed inside the country. Retail customers and private companies took on the bulk of it.

For anyone who has applied for a mortgage, a car loan, or working capital for a small shop, this is what a growing loan book feels like. Credit gets easier to reach. Approvals come through more often. Banks compete harder for your business.

Loan quality improved alongside the volume. The non-performing loan ratio fell to 3.3 percent in 2025, down from 4.7 percent a year earlier. In 2020, it stood at 8.2 percent. Lending more while getting repaid more reliably is an unusual pairing, and it points to households and firms in better financial shape.

Profits and the cushion behind them

Net profits climbed 11.7 percent to AED90.8 billion, about $24.7 billion, helped by higher operating income. The capital adequacy ratio finished the year at 17 percent, above the regulatory minimum. Deposits kept flowing in, so liquidity stayed comfortable.

Think of a capital ratio the way you would think of a household emergency fund. The bigger the buffer, the longer a bank can take losses without cutting off customers.

CBUAE’s Financial Stability Report also covers what happens if conditions turn ugly. Supervisory stress tests run during 2025 modelled a severe economic shock. Under the adverse scenario, the average Common Equity Tier 1 ratio slipped from 14.1 percent to a low of 11.1 percent, staying above the regulatory floor for the whole test period.

What CBUAE’s Financial Stability Report says about payments

CBUAE’s Financial Stability Report tracks how money moves as well as where it sits. The Aani instant payment platform carried around 183 percent more transactions in 2025 than in 2024, and enrolled users passed 11.7 million by the end of December. Aani lets you send up to AED50,000 at any hour of the day, with QR payments, payment requests and split bills built in.

The Jaywan card scheme runs alongside it as the national card network. Both sit inside the Financial Infrastructure Transformation Programme, the central bank’s plan for rebuilding the country’s payment rails. Work on cross-border payments continues under the same programme.

Beyond the big banks

CBUAE’s Financial Stability Report describes steady conditions across Islamic banking and insurance too. A legal change sits underneath all of this. Federal Decree-Law No. 6 of 2025 consolidated the rules covering banks and insurers, reinforced the central bank’s independence, and named the CBUAE as the country’s Resolution Authority, the body that steps in when a financial firm fails.

Khaled Mohamed Balama, Governor of the CBUAE, said the report “affirms the strength and resilience of the UAE financial system and its ability to continue supporting the national economy efficiently.” He said the central bank will keep tightening its supervisory and prudential frameworks and preparing the system for risks still ahead.

For savers and borrowers, the practical read is simple. Banks have room to lend, buffers to absorb trouble, and payment tools that clear money in seconds rather than days. What the next report shows will depend on whether credit growth near 18 percent holds without loan quality slipping back.

By Amira Khalil
3 min read

Media

Harry and Meghan Moving Back to Britain With Security Still Unresolved

Harry and Meghan moving back to Britain has landed on the royal household with almost no warning. The couple will relocate within weeks to a private residence somewhere outside London. Their children are already signed up at British schools. King Charles learned of the plan on Sunday. He played no part in the decision.

Nothing was said about it when Harry, Meghan and the children visited Charles at Highgrove, his private home, last month. Four media outlets in the UK, the United States and Australia broke the story on Wednesday night at the same time. The couple has not explained their reasons.

The exit six years ago carried its own shock. Harry and Meghan stepped back from working royal life in 2020 and left for North America. They pointed to media intrusion, attacks on Meghan and thin palace support. Their plan for a half-in, half-out role had been rejected by Queen Elizabeth II. Those problems have not gone away.

Harry and Meghan moving back to Britain puts protection back in play

Security is the practical question, and it is a regulatory one. Prince Harry’s UK security has been contested since February 2020, when his taxpayer-funded police protection was downgraded after he stopped working as a royal. He fought that decision through the courts and lost at the Court of Appeal last year. A separate bid to pay for the policing himself also failed, after the Home Office raised concerns about wealthy people buying state cover.

RAVEC royal protection decisions sit with the Royal and VIP Executive Committee, an independent body overseen by the Home Office. The prime minister does not make the call. Neither does the Home Secretary, who takes no part in individual cases. Because the old arrangements assumed the family lived abroad, RAVEC has to rule again.

What a new ruling could cost

The Home Office describes the UK protective security system as rigorous and proportionate. It also refuses to publish detail, on the grounds that doing so could weaken the arrangements and put people at risk. So do not expect a quick public answer.

The stakes here are money and reach. Private bodyguards in Britain cannot carry firearms. They also sit outside the police intelligence loop. If the Duke and Duchess of Sussex return without state cover, Harry pays the difference himself and works with a narrower set of tools.

Harry and Meghan moving back to Britain also reopens the media fight. Harry won legal actions against Mirror Group Newspapers and the publishers of the Sun and News of the World. In July he lost his case against the publishers of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday over unproven claims of unlawful information gathering. Relations with parts of the press are worse now than in 2020.

Family relations, still cool

There is some repair with Charles. Harry has said his father did not return his calls at points over the past six years. The Prince Harry King Charles relationship reads warmer today, though palace officials stay wary about private information reaching print.

Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty Magazine, said closer private access to his son and grandchildren is good for Charles personally, but building a reasonable degree of trust will take a long time. He said the break took more than six years, so the repair will not take six weeks.

William is the harder problem. The brothers are estranged. Peter Hunt, a former BBC royal correspondent, suggests the future king would be apoplectic at the return and at rival courts forming.

What happens next

Archie and Lilibet’s British schools start in early September, and that sets the clock. Harry and Meghan moving back to Britain restores no official duties. Charles has made clear that their status as private, non-working members of the family does not change. Any work they take on runs through their own charitable projects.

By Khaled Darwish
4 min read

Aviation

New Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) targets 260 million passengers

Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) targets 260 million passengers a year, and Dubai has now decided how most of them will move once they are inside the gates. Dubai Aviation City Corporation, a government entity, awarded the contract for a 50-kilometre automated people mover system to a consortium led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The Japanese group describes the network as the largest of its kind at any airport. Nine stations are planned, served by 165 driverless vehicles. Completion is scheduled for December 2031, a year ahead of the airport’s planned opening.

Who governs the award?

Dubai Aviation City Corporation sits inside the emirate’s government, which means the money and the accountability are public. Joining MHI are MHI Mobility Engineering Services and the Indian engineering group Larsen and Toubro. The Japanese partners lead design, procurement and testing of the vehicles and signalling, plus overall system integration. L&T takes the remaining subsystems, from design through on-site construction.

Neither the corporation nor MHI has published a price. L&T has classified its portion as a large order under its own reporting bands, a range of 2,500 crore to 5,000 crore rupees, or somewhere between 280 million and 560 million dollars. The precise figure stays undisclosed. Delivery is being implemented through Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects. MHI is not a stranger here, having built the Dubai Metro, which opened in 2011.

The first phase is set at 150 million passengers

Capacity is the reason. Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) targets 260 million passengers a year in its final form, alongside 12 million tonnes of cargo, across a site of about 70 square kilometres with five parallel runways. Reaching that figure would make it the world’s largest airport by design capacity. The first phase is set at 150 million passengers, and the higher number is a long-term ceiling rather than an opening-day promise.

Dubai International handled 95.2 million passengers in 2025, its busiest year on record, and has almost no room left to stretch. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum approved the new passenger terminal and a 128 billion dirham budget in April 2024, about 35 billion dollars. The Al Maktoum International Airport expansion has been running through a series of contract awards since.

A benchmark set well above Dallas

The 50-kilometre network would run more than six times the length of the current leader, the roughly 8-kilometre SkyLink at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, the most heavily travelled airport in the world, carries around 91 million passengers a year and moves them internally on its Plane Train. Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) targets 260 million passengers over time, close to three times Atlanta’s present traffic. Transfers become the binding constraint at that scale. MHI says the system is meant to cut journey times inside the Dubai World Central airport, improve convenience and keep operations efficient as volumes climb.

Technology decisions held open

Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports, has said the second phase is being designed around new technology and around convenience for travellers. He has spoken of building an airport experience like none other, and has indicated some equipment choices will be taken late in the programme, so newer systems can still be adopted. Keeping options open guards against obsolescence. It also loads risk onto the schedule, and on a public project of this size the timetable is the one measure outsiders can check without access to the books. The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries contract fixes one of the larger pieces early. Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) targets 260 million passengers, and the people mover decides whether an airport of that size works from the inside.

By Mariam Al-Yazidi
3 min read

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Yalla payment services approval brings the UAE closer to cashless finance

Yalla payment services approval brings the UAE closer to cashless finance

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What the Yalla payment services approval means for you

A milestone in Yalla’s journey