United Arab Emirates: Entry into force with grace period of Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes Regulation introducing licensing requirement

The Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes Regulation came into force on 15th July 2021, with a one-year grace period.. The Regulation is aiming to ensure safety and reliability for consumers regarding retail payments services and the operation of payment card schemes. The Regulation introduces a licensing requirement for payment service providers, who intend to provide one or more of nine payment services or payment card schemes in the UAE. Payment account issuance, payment instrument issuance, merchant acquiring, payment aggregation, domestic and cross-border fund transfers, payment tokens, payment initiation, as well as payment account information services are altogether affected by the new licensing regime.