Standard Chartered becomes CoinMENA’s banking partner in the UAE for fiat settlement and client money accounts

CoinMENA FZE, a VARA-licensed virtual asset broker-dealer, has partnered with Standard Chartered in the UAE to support client money accounts and fiat settlement infrastructure. For high-risk payment teams, the point is simple: this is another sign that regulated crypto businesses in the UAE are getting access to more conventional banking plumbing, not less.

1. Under the agreement, CoinMENA will use Standard Chartered’s banking capabilities to support secure client money accounts, high-speed settlement channels, and virtual account-based transaction management. In plain terms, that should make deposits and withdrawals cleaner and faster for CoinMENA’s clients.
2. CoinMENA said the setup is meant to accelerate account funding, improve settlement efficiency, and increase transaction transparency. The company also said it should improve liquidity settlements with approved global counterparties and strengthen scalability inside a regulated ecosystem.
3. Rola Abu Manneh, Chief Executive Officer in UAE, Middle East and Pakistan at Standard Chartered, said the UAE has become one of the world’s leading regulatory environments for digital assets, and that this has created more room for collaboration between regulated firms and major financial institutions.
4. CoinMENA Group Co-Founders Dina Sam’an and Talal Tabbaa said the industry’s next stage depends not only on technology, but also on banking, regulatory, and operational foundations. They said the partnership reinforces CoinMENA’s push to build institutional-grade infrastructure for clients across the MENA region.
5. CoinMENA said the deal marks a step forward for banking integration for digital assets across the Middle East and North Africa. That matters in a region where users accounted for near 7.5% of global cryptocurrency transaction volume in 2024, and where Chainalysis said the MENA crypto market grew at an annual rate of about 33% in 2025.