The UAE flipped the switch on its first national payment card scheme this Sunday. Jaywan is now operational, thousands of online merchants can accept it, and two more banks — FAB and CBD — have joined the roster of issuers, according to a CBUAE press release and reporting by The National and Gulf News.
What happened on 20 July
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan — Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the CBUAE Board — announced the operational launch of Jaywan on 20 July 2026. It is the UAE's first domestic payment card scheme, operated by Al Etihad Payments (AEP), a CBUAE subsidiary.
"This achievement reflects the UAE's commitment to developing a more efficient, flexible and competitive financial sector that unlocks broader opportunities for innovation, promotes financial inclusion, and further strengthens the UAE's position as a leading global financial hub," Sheikh Mansour said, per the official announcement.
CBUAE Governor Khaled Balama described the milestone as a "qualitative leap" for the country's payments infrastructure, according to The National. The scheme sits inside the broader "We the UAE 2031" strategy, which puts financial-sector sovereignty on the same list as tourism and industry.
Under the hood: how Jaywan works
Jaywan is more than a brand on plastic. Domestic transactions clear through UAESWITCH, the national payment switch — meaning that when you tap a Jaywan card at a Dubai POS terminal, the money moves inside the country's own rails. International use is covered through co-badging with Discover, Mastercard, Visa and UnionPay, per AEP.
The scheme supports three card types: debit, prepaid and credit. Credit is still in development. Two issuers went live in Phase 1 last year — Emirates NBD and Bank of Baroda. Phase 2, announced this weekend, adds First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) with a debit card and Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) with a prepaid product.
The FAB Jaywan Debit Card ships with chip-and-PIN, 3D Secure for online payments, and tokenisation for mobile wallets — usable across POS, ATM and online. Customers can apply through the FAB Mobile app or in branch; Elite and Private Banking clients get it through their relationship manager. "The Jaywan Debit Card reflects FAB's commitment to delivering secure, innovative and customer-focused payment solutions that support the UAE's evolving financial ecosystem," said Futoon Al Mazrouei, Group Head of Personal, Wealth, Business Banking and Privileged Client Group at FAB.
CBUAE has mandated that all licensed banks be Jaywan-enabled by the end of 2025 — a deadline that effectively makes the scheme universal for account-holders in the country.
What it means for businesses and expats
Merchant acceptance jumped this month. Network International, the country's leading acquirer, has activated Jaywan on thousands of online storefronts, and Gulf News reports the acquiring terms are favourable — a signal that CBUAE wants merchants to opt in without friction. Andrea Cianchetti, Chief Product Officer at AEP, framed it plainly: "Every issuer, acquirer, and payment service provider that enables the scheme expands where customers can use their cards."
For expats and residents, the wallet story matters most. Google Pay is live. Samsung Wallet is live, following an MoU between AEP and Samsung Gulf. Apple Pay has been rolling out bank-by-bank since iOS 18.4 in March 2025 — check your issuer's status if it hasn't appeared yet.
For business owners, the practical question is cost. Interchange fees on Visa and Mastercard in the region typically fall in a 1.5–2.5% band — that's an industry estimate, not financial advice, and your actual rate depends on your acquirer, merchant category code, card type and brand. A domestic scheme routed through UAESWITCH is structurally cheaper to clear. Whether that saving reaches your P&L depends on the terms your acquirer offers you when you enable Jaywan alongside the international networks. Ask.
Finance and accounting teams will also want to watch reconciliation. Domestic-cleared Jaywan volume settles differently from cross-border card volume — a detail worth flagging to your payment gateway and to whoever closes your month-end.
History and next steps
Jaywan didn't appear overnight. Phase 1 in 2025 brought Emirates NBD and Bank of Baroda online as first issuers. A bilateral integration with India's RuPay, via NPCI International Payments (NIPL), gave the scheme cross-border reach into one of the UAE's largest remittance corridors. The end-2025 CBUAE mandate then forced the rest of the market to catch up.
What's next: credit card issuance across banks, deeper Apple Pay coverage as the remaining issuers finish integration, and — reading between the lines of the AEP announcement — further bilateral tie-ups with foreign schemes to broaden international acceptance beyond the current co-badging partners.
For Garant Business Consultancy clients running UAE operations, the move to raise with your bank is simple: ask what Jaywan-enabled acceptance looks like on your merchant account, when it's available, and how the settlement and fee terms compare with your current setup. This is reporting, not financial advice — talk to your acquirer and your accountant before acting on interchange numbers.
Sources: CBUAE press release (20 July 2026); Al Etihad Payments; The National; Gulf News; FAB corporate communications.
