The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) has granted Ant International a Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes (Category II) licence and a Stored Value Facilities licence, the company said on 14 October.
The payments licence is a step towards Antom, Ant International’s merchant payments business, offering merchant acquiring in the UAE. The stored value licence allows WorldFirst, its global account service, to offer cross-border financial services in the country. WorldFirst provides international payments, collections, currency conversion and treasury management through one account, and Ant International says it has served more than 1.6 million customers.
UAE merchants can already accept cross-border wallet payments through Alipay+, which operates through partnerships with locally licensed banks and acquirers and does not depend on the new licences.
The CBUAE gave Ant International in principle approval for both licences in August 2025, when the company also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office. Leiming Chen, Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice President at Ant International, said the licences “mark a crucial milestone in Ant International’s efforts to support the UAE’s fintech ecosystem”.
Digital Trade Outlook’s View: WorldFirst Is the Licence That Matters
The payments licence gets the headline. The stored value licence is the one that hurts banks. WorldFirst can now sell multicurrency accounts directly to UAE importers and exporters, and every conversion it wins is FX margin a local bank used to keep without a fight.
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Image: Ant International