On 22 September 2026, PhonePe — India's largest payments player, with 700 million registered users and 50 million merchants — announced that it had received in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE for two regulatory licences: Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes, and Stored Value Facilities. It is the company's first international regulatory step. Commercial launch in the UAE still lies past the final approval — but the news already shifts the balance in the digital payments segment.
What the Central Bank actually approved
According to PhonePe, the Central Bank of the UAE granted in-principle approval on two licences at once, both under the current CBUAE payments regulatory regime:
- Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes (RPSCS) — covers payment acquiring, card schemes, and the processing and clearing of retail payments.
- Stored Value Facilities (SVF) — covers e-wallets, prepaid instruments and the holding of customer funds for later payments.
In-principle approval means the regulator has confirmed that the applicant broadly meets the criteria — but operations are not yet permitted. Full authorisation requires an operational readiness phase: closing AML/CFT requirements, integrating with local infrastructure where needed (including the Credit Information Company where applicable), running system and cyber tests, and finalising the governance model. For earlier applicants this stage has taken anywhere from a few months to a year.
What already works — and what does not, yet
Two scenarios matter here and should not be confused: the tourist flow is already live, the local flow is not.
What works. Indian visitors to the UAE have for some time been able to pay through their home PhonePe app: they scan QR codes on NEOPAY and Network International terminals, the payment travels through UPI, and the UAE side is settled by a local acquirer. This runs on the NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) partnership with Emirati acquirers and does not depend on a fresh CBUAE licence.
What does not. Opening a local PhonePe wallet in AED, linking a UAE card, sending domestic transfers, or accepting payments as a merchant into a local wallet — none of that is available yet. All of it becomes possible only after final approval. The key point: today's news is about clearance to move to the next step, not about a service going live.
From in-principle to a final licence
The CBUAE regulatory path for payment providers typically runs through several stages: application, initial due diligence, in-principle approval, operational readiness, final licence, launch. For PhonePe, only the first block is publicly visible — the regulator has completed due diligence and confirmed the in-principle step. The operational stage comes next.
Time expectations are anchored by recent precedents:
- Wise — obtained the final RPSCS and SVF licences in 2025 after an intermediate in-principle step. Full cycle: roughly a year.
- Revolut UAE — received in-principle approval in 2025; final authorisation is in progress.
- KamelPay — went through a comparable path under the CBUAE regime.
The comparison with PhonePe is not one-to-one (different volumes, different products), but a range of "several months to a year" between in-principle and final approval looks realistic.
What it means for the UAE payments market
In its statement PhonePe explicitly named the UAE's two domestic payment rails — Aani (the national instant payment platform under CBUAE) and Jaywan (the UAE's national payment card) — as rails the company intends to "support" once it launches, using its technology stack. That fits the wider CBUAE strategy in which Aani and Jaywan are set out as the baseline national payment layer and licensed PSPs operate above them as issuers, acquirers or wallet providers. More on the card in our overview — Jaywan — the UAE national payment card.
For the market this points to three things. First, another large acquirer/PSP channel for merchants — relevant for segments dominated by micro-payments and QR acquiring. Second, a potential reinforcement of the India–UAE corridor: the Indian community is the country's largest expat group, estimated at around 3.5 million people, and PhonePe with its UPI stack fits naturally there. Third, a competitive shift: Ziina, Careem Pay, the Aani-aggregator layer and multi-currency wallets such as Revolut UAE and Wise will see another strong player added to the shortlist of integrations.
Practical implications for B2B and merchants
Between now and the final licence, the window is for preparation. Merchants with Indian traffic (retail, HoReCa, tourism, healthcare, luxury) should revisit their merchant stack and discuss with their existing PSP or acquirer whether PhonePe can be added as an acceptance channel once available. B2B players (payment orchestrators, ERPs, marketplace platforms) should reserve integration slots on the roadmap. For companies still building financial infrastructure in the UAE, opening a corporate bank account in the UAE remains the first step, and PSP selection is worth doing already with the extended 2026–2027 lineup in mind.
Key points worth watching next: the appearance of PhonePe in the public CBUAE register of licensed providers, a second wave of PhonePe announcements (partner banks, launch date, product scope), and the first public integrations with Aani and Jaywan.
