CoinMENA partners with Standard Chartered on UAE fiat payment rails as Revolut gets CBUAE license approval

CoinMENA has signed a banking agreement with Standard Chartered to support fiat on- and off-ramps, client money accounts and virtual account-based transaction management for customers in the United Arab Emirates. For high-risk PSPs, the detail that matters is simple: regulated banking access in the UAE is still being assembled one partnership at a time.

1. According to a press release shared to Cointelegraph, CoinMENA will use Standard Chartered to strengthen its fiat payment infrastructure in the UAE. The exchange said the setup should improve transparency and liquidity settlement with approved global counterparties.
2. Standard Chartered UAE, Middle East and Pakistan CEO Rola Abu Manneh said the UAE has established itself as a leading regulatory environment for digital assets, creating room for financial institutions and regulated firms to work together. In practice, that is the pitch every crypto exchange wants to hear when it is trying to lock down banking rails that do not disappear overnight.
3. CoinMENA co-founders Dina Sam’an and Talal Tabbaa said the industry’s future depends on “strong banking, regulatory, and operational foundations, not just technology.” That is the right order of priorities for any exchange handling fiat flow: the product matters, but the settlement stack is what keeps the business open.
4. Separately, the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) approved Revolut’s applications for Stored Value Facilities and Retail Payment Services licenses, according to Bloomberg. Revolut reportedly plans to build out its technology, operations and local capabilities before offering services in the country.
5. UAE customers are expected to get access to multi-currency accounts, physical and virtual cards, and domestic and international transfers through Revolut’s app. The reported licenses cover stored-value and retail payment services, not explicit authorization for virtual asset activities, and Revolut has not publicly confirmed whether its local offering will include digital asset trading, transfers, staking or access to its Revolut X exchange.

The broader point for PSPs and exchanges is that the UAE is still opening rails in layers: payment licenses first, virtual asset permissions separately, and banking partnerships as the practical bridge between the two. For high-risk operators, that separation is the whole game.