Banking and payments
The most supervised business in the country.
Banks, finance companies, payment service providers and exchange houses answer to a federal banking rulebook — and to an AML regime that is enforced, not merely published.
What makes this sector hard
- Keeping pace with a rulebook that is amended continuously
- AML/CFT obligations that carry personal liability
- Payment token and open finance regimes with no settled practice
- Outsourcing and cloud approvals that gate every technology decision
The banking rulebook is not one document; it is a structure of regulations, standards and guidance that changes faster than most compliance calendars. Retail payments, payment tokens and open finance each arrived with their own regime inside a few years.
The advisors read your activity against the rulebook as it stands, and name the instrument behind every obligation so a supervisor's question has an answer ready.
Where it applies
Where to start
-
Entering the UAE market
Onshore or a financial free zone — and what each one costs you.
The UAE is not one jurisdiction. Choosing between the mainland and a financial free zone sets your licensing route, your courts, your data rules and your tax position for years.
Learn more Entering the UAE market -
Licensing and authorisation
What you need permission for, and from whom.
Regulated activity in the UAE is defined narrowly and enforced literally. The expensive mistakes are the ones where a firm thought it was outside the perimeter.
Learn more Licensing and authorisation -
Building a compliance programme
Policies that survive an inspection.
AML/CFT, sanctions, data protection and conduct — drafted against the instruments that actually apply to you, not a template from another market.
Learn more Building a compliance programme
Other sectors
Put the council to work
Create an account and ask your first question in under a minute.
Najem AI produces analysis and drafts for internal use. It is not legal, tax, audit or investment advice and does not create a professional relationship.