Taptap Send has secured three regulatory licenses from the Central Bank of the UAE, clearing the way for the cross-border payments firm to run local wallets, cards and payment services inside the country. The approvals, announced on 8 July 2026, move the company from pure remittance operator to onshore UAE payments provider.
What CBUAE approved
The CBUAE has issued Taptap Send three separate authorisations: a Stored Value Facilities (SVF) licence, a Retail Payment Services licence at Category II, and an Exchange Business licence at Category IV. Together they cover the parts of the payments stack a fintech needs to operate onshore rather than only across the border.
Each licence solves a specific problem. SVF lets the firm hold customer funds inside digital wallets. Category II retail payments cover the day-to-day rails — transfers, top-ups, merchant payouts. Category IV exchange business gives Taptap Send a formal foothold in currency conversion, one of the busiest financial activities in the country given its expat mix.
What the licenses unlock
The three-licence bundle takes Taptap Send well beyond its original remittance product and turns it into a full onshore payments platform for the UAE market.
In practical terms, the company can now:
- run local UAE payments, dirham-to-dirham;
- issue digital wallets for customers based in the Emirates;
- roll out payment cards aimed at diaspora communities across the country.
That last point matters. The UAE's foreign workforce sends money home in serious volumes, but the same people also spend, save and get paid inside the country every day. Until now, Taptap Send handled only one side of that equation.
What it means for UAE business and expats
For expat consumers and small-business owners in the UAE, the licences open the door to a single provider covering both the money they send home and everyday spending on the ground. Fewer accounts. Less friction. Potentially better rates on the FX leg, since the same firm now sits on both sides of the transaction.
For fintech founders watching the market, it is a clear signal that the CBUAE is willing to license non-bank players across several categories at once — not one narrow permission at a time. That changes the strategic calculus for anyone building payments infrastructure in the region.
Context
Taptap Send operates in more than 35 sending countries and pays out into over 80 destinations globally. The UAE is one of the world's largest remittance corridors, and its diaspora skews toward exactly the demographics the firm already serves outbound.
"The UAE is unlike anywhere else on earth, with over 200 nationalities and a government that has put financial inclusion and innovation at the heart of its national agenda," said Michael Faye, CEO and Co-Founder of Taptap Send, commenting on the approvals.
The move also fits the CBUAE's wider Financial Infrastructure Transformation agenda, which has steadily widened the door for licensed non-bank participants across payments, wallets and stored value.
Sources: Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) — Rulebook, license categories; Taptap Send corporate communications and CEO comment; Fintech News UAE — 08 Jul 2026.
