Checkout.com Wins Provisional UAE Approval as Revolut and Remitly Move Ahead With Full Licences

Checkout.com won in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE for a stored value facilities licence, the payments company said today (Monday). The clearance covers issuing, which the London-based firm wants to run alongside the acquiring business it already operates in the country.

In-principle approval is not permission to operate. It marks the first stage of the regulator's two-step process, and Checkout.com gave no date for when the capability would actually go live.

What the Approval Does and Does Not Allow

The stored value facilities regime is how the CBUAE licenses non-banks to hold customer funds and issue wallets or cards. The framework dates to 2016 and has been rewritten as the central bank builds out licensing categories for payments and remittance firms.

Remo Giovanni Abbondandolo, general manager for MENA at Checkout.com, said that "once operational, this connected approach will help merchants reduce complexity." The company thanked the central bank for its support through the process.

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Checkout.com is already an acquirer in the UAE, so the approval adds a product line rather than opening a new market.

Card Funding From Acquired Balances Is the Pitch

The commercial argument is about working capital. Checkout.com says merchants that use both its acquiring and issuing services would be able to fund cards directly from balances they have already taken in, removing the need to pre-fund card programs.

That claim has not been independently tested, and the company has not published pricing or the mechanics of how the two sides would settle against each other.

The two services are sold separately, according to the firm, so merchants can take either one. Checkout.com's existing UAE business runs through relationships including a deposits and cross-border transfers deal with CFD broker Equiti Group signed in February.

Two Rivals Already Cleared the Same Regulator

Checkout.com is arriving at a stage of the process that others have already finished. The licence it has been provisionally cleared for has gone to at least two international peers in the past two months.

Revolut received in-principle approval for stored value facilities and retail payment services in September 2025. It converted both into full licences in June, a gap of about nine months, and has since added a separate provisional approval from Dubai's virtual asset regulator for crypto services.

Remitly announced a full stored value facilities licence with Exchange Business Category IV authorization on July 9, describing itself as among the first international remittance companies to hold one. Neither firm's route suggests provisional clearance converts quickly.

Brokers have been working through a parallel set of UAE licence tiers, with several upgrading from marketing-only permissions to full local authorization. FXTM moved to give up its UK licence in April while raising its bet on the Emirates.

A Growth Figure Without a Base

Checkout.com said its total processing volume across MENA grew 62% year over year between 2024 and 2025. However, it did not disclose the underlying volume, the UAE's share of it, or how the region compares with its other markets.

How long the second stage takes now rests with the central bank's review. Checkout.com has not said what it is targeting.