Adyen gets UAE Central Bank Retail Payment Services license after 6+ years in market

Adyen has secured a Retail Payment Services (Category II) license from the Central Bank of the UAE, giving it more control over local settlements after 6+ years operating in the market with clients including Careem, noon, and Ziina. For PSPs serving high-risk merchants, the detail that matters is simple: fewer third parties in the settlement chain usually means more direct oversight, but also more local compliance work.

1. The new license lets Adyen further develop its local capabilities in the UAE across fraud prevention, emerging payment methods, and unified commerce. The company also says it lays the foundation for future technologies such as agentic AI.
2. Until now, Adyen had to rely on third parties for local settlements in the UAE. With the Central Bank license in place, the group says it gets more independence, more oversight, and more compliance over that flow.
3. Adyen has been active in the UAE for more than 6 years and counts Careem, noon, and Ziina among the companies it has supported there. That makes this less of a market entry story and more of a permissions upgrade for an existing operating setup.

For high-risk PSPs, the useful signal is that the UAE Central Bank is licensing a broader local payments stack, not just a thin acceptance layer. If you operate in the market, the practical questions are now about settlement control, local compliance requirements, and whether your current structure still makes sense when a competitor can bring more of the flow in-house.