On 31 July 2026 the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) granted UAE-born fintech KamelPay two full operating licences — Stored Value Facilities (SVF) and Retail Payment Services (RPS). For the market this means a further widening of the narrow pool of providers cleared by the regulator to run regulated payments and payroll wallets on their own infrastructure, without depending on an intermediary bank.
What CBUAE actually cleared
According to Gulf News, both licences fall under the CBUAE Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes Regulation framework. SVF (Stored Value Facilities) allows the operator to hold customer funds on its own accounts in the form of prepaid wallets and prepaid cards, and to issue payroll wallets and e-money. RPS (Retail Payment Services) authorises retail payment operations — transfers, payment acceptance and processing for business and individual customers.
The combination closes the full loop: from the employer crediting salary and the platform holding the funds, to the employee's spending on an issued card. Until they hold that full set, most fintechs run through partnerships with a licence-holding bank; owning the licensed infrastructure lowers operational dependence and simplifies product development.
What KamelPay is and why it matters for UAE business
KamelPay is a UAE-born fintech founded in 2021 in Dubai, focused on payroll and corporate payments. At the time of the announcement its customer base exceeded 2,000 corporate clients, with more than 400,000 employees receiving salary through the KamelPay stack — across construction, retail, real estate, logistics, hospitality and financial services.
Two flagship products cover different segments: PayD — payroll and workforce financial services (salary wallets, prepaid cards for employees, WPS-compliance tooling); AbsoluteCard — corporate expense cards and expense management for companies. In July 2026 KamelPay also announced a partnership with Paymentology to scale corporate payments — the CBUAE licences allow that stack to be deployed on the company's own regulated foundation.
"These licences represent far more than regulatory approval; they fundamentally strengthen KamelPay's operating model," Saadaat Yaqub, Co-Founder and Director, told Gulf News. CEO Ehsan Rahman framed the company's remit as building a payments layer that both businesses and their workforce can rely on.
Context: how CBUAE is building a regulated payments layer
The event fits the wider logic the Central Bank of the UAE has been executing for several years: methodical licensing of fintech operators in parallel with the roll-out of national payments infrastructure — the Jaywan card scheme and Aani instant payments. Through 2026 the licensed operator pool has been steadily broadened, becoming part of the country's regulated payments perimeter. KamelPay's angle in that picture is a distinctly local B2B focus — infrastructure for employers rather than a consumer wallet.
Strategically it shapes two adjacent dynamics. First, competition for the payroll platform role: banks that traditionally handled that function through a UAE corporate bank account now compete with licensed fintechs offering a specialised product. Second, unification of compliance: as the pool of licensed providers grows, employers get more certified channels for WPS (Wage Protection System) compliance without exposure to unregulated intermediaries.
What this means for your business
If your company already uses an external payroll provider or plans to onboard one, the announcement offers three practical takeaways. First, when picking a provider, distinguish clearly between a full licence (SVF and/or RPS) and an In-Principle Approval (IPA): the former grants the right to operate with client funds, the latter is only clearance for the final authorisation stage. Second, ask the provider to confirm that the services you actually consume fall inside the licence scope — for example, a prepaid salary wallet must sit on an SVF mandate. Third, check the public register on the Central Bank of the UAE website whenever a payroll contract is signed, renewed or expanded — the register is updated regularly.
For the market, another fully licensed B2B fintech focused on payroll is a maturity signal for the UAE's regulated payments layer. For companies it widens the choice and lowers regulatory risk. Further CBUAE steps in this direction — from new fintech licences to expanding the regulatory architecture around digital assets and open banking — will continue to be tracked by our editorial team.
