Today's Edition
MAYS IBRAHIM (ABU DHABI)
Digital Dirham is ready for launch and will roll out in phases “very soon”, free for consumers and SMEs, with features such as instant tourist onboarding, according to Paul Kayrouz, Chief Fintech Officer, Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE).
“We will enable tourists that come to the UAE to top up their CBDC wallet with any account or any wallet they may have, convert any currency into Digital Dirham, spend the Dgital Dirham in the UAE, anywhere they want in the UAE, and then on their way back, convert it to whichever currency they want in a click of a button,” he said at the Abu Dhabi Finance Week (ADFW) on Wednesday.
According to Kayrouz, this rollout comes as part of the CBUAE’s strategy to become both a top central bank and a leading fintech hub – built on five key pillars, including internationalising the dirham through the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and the dirham stablecoin.
The strategy also involves reimagining regulation to balance innovation and risk; modernising financial market infrastructure; advancing talent development; and encouraging more collaboration between banks, fintech firms and technology companies.
Kayrouz said that the UAE had issued 10 bespoke fintech regulations, including an open finance framework that supports more personalised financial services and a stable coin regime already regarded as “a global benchmark” by regulators.
CBUAE has also built a number of digital platforms to modernise financial services across the country.
Among them is Aani, the instant payment platform currently connecting global systems in India, China, Brazil, Turkey, and Kazakhstan, among others.
The domestic card scheme Jaywan aims to lower merchant fees and expand payment options for consumers, while AlTareq, an open finance platform, is designed to boost data-sharing across the financial sector.
CBUAE is also preparing to launch a unified eKYC platform that, Kayrouz said, will “completely transform” identity verification for individuals and businesses.
He also revealed that the UAE’s Dirham stablecoin framework, which is now live, will soon enable domestic and cross-border transactions, as well as integration with DeFi, web3, and tokenisation platforms.
Moreover, CBUAE is currently “building a state-of-the-art innovation bridge that will connect every single financial institution in the UAE with every fintech in our ecosystem, along with all regulators and all technology companies, including the big techs, so that we allow everyone to co-create use cases together,” he added.
Several proof-of-concept projects are underway through the bank’s innovation hub in Dubai, according to Kayrouz.
“Soon you will be able to use your biometric data to make payments in the UAE, whether it’s your palm, your facial data, or even your Emirates ID, and then you can make any payment across all merchants in the UAE,” he explained.
“Another example is the digitisation of bank guarantees on both private and public blockchains, and this is how we will strengthen and further the trade finance ecosystem between the UAE and other countries.”
As part of its vision to enable the ecosystem to co-create innovative technologies and financial solutions, CBUAE is building what Kayrouz described as a “first-of-its-kind” AI agentic bank at its Dubai innovation hub.
