Central Bank of the UAE's Open Finance framework: what it means in practice
The Central Bank of the UAE's Open Finance framework has been live for some time now, but the gap between what it enables in regulation and what businesses understand it to mean in practice remains wide. That gap is worth closing, because the commercial implications for businesses operating in the UAE are significant, and the market is moving faster than many realise.
The UAE's Open Banking market is projected to grow from USD 3.16 billion in 2024 to USD 5.71 billion by 2029, driven by a consumer base where 89% already use digital accounts. The infrastructure to serve that market is not on its way. It is already here.
What the framework actually is
The Central Bank of the UAE issued its Open Finance Regulation in 2024, requiring licensed banks and financial institutions to participate. The framework establishes the regulatory infrastructure for secure, consent-driven access to financial data and payment initiation in the UAE, defining who can participate, under what conditions, and to what standard.
At its core, the framework enables two things. First, licensed Third-Party Providers can access financial data, also referred to as account information, on behalf of customers who have given explicit consent. Second, those same providers can initiate payments directly from a customer's bank account, also referred to as Pay by Bank or Payment Initiation Services.
Both capabilities operate under the AlTareq scheme, which is the UAE's national Open Finance infrastructure. AlTareq connects banks, licensed TPPs, merchants, and customers within a single regulated framework, setting the standards for how data is shared, how payments are initiated, and how customer consent is captured and managed. Notably, the UAE is the first country globally to implement a consolidated trust framework and a centralised API hub for Open Finance, a structural advantage that reduces fragmentation and accelerates adoption. The first version of the AlTareq standard was published in August 2024, with an updated version released in December 2024, reflecting the pace at which the framework is maturing.
Who participates and how
Merchants and businesses do not connect to AlTareq directly. The framework works through licensed Third-Party Providers, which are entities that have received authorisation from the Central Bank of the UAE to operate under the framework. Licensed TPPs carry the regulatory relationship, maintain compliance with the framework's requirements, and provide the connectivity layer through which merchants can access Open Finance capabilities.
Several UAE banks are live under the framework, including Commercial Bank of Dubai, First Abu Dhabi Bank, and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, with connectivity expanding as more institutions complete their integration. For merchants, this means that the bank coverage available through a licensed TPP is growing, and with it the proportion of customers who can be reached through Open Finance payment and data flows.
What is live today
Under the framework, businesses in the UAE can access a meaningful and growing set of capabilities. Payment initiation allows merchants to accept account-to-account payments directly from a customer's bank account, in real time, without card schemes or intermediaries. Financial data access allows businesses to retrieve verified account information, income data, and transaction history with customer consent, enabling use cases across lending, onboarding, and risk assessment.
International payment initiation is also now live, following the execution of the first international Open Finance payment in the GCC through AlTareq. This extends the framework's payment capabilities beyond domestic transactions, opening up cross-border payment flows for remittance businesses, merchants collecting internationally, and platforms managing recurring cross-border payments. The Central Bank of the UAE has also joined Project Aperta, an initiative launched in October 2024 by the Bank for International Settlements, aimed at connecting domestic Open Finance infrastructures across multiple jurisdictions, signalling clear long-term ambition for cross-border interoperability.
What it means commercially
For businesses operating in the UAE, the framework creates a regulated, reliable foundation for payment and data capabilities that were previously either unavailable or required bespoke bilateral arrangements with individual banks.
The commercial implications are direct. Merchants can accept payments at lower cost than card rails, with real-time settlement and no chargeback exposure. Lenders can access verified financial data at the point of credit decision, improving the accuracy and speed of underwriting. Businesses onboarding new customers can verify accounts instantly, reducing drop-off and manual processing overhead.
These are not future capabilities. They are available today, through licensed providers operating under the framework, to any business ready to integrate them.
What to look for in a licensed provider
Not all licensed TPPs are the same. The quality of bank connectivity, the breadth of market coverage, and the depth of the product layer built on top of the framework vary significantly. For businesses evaluating providers, the questions worth asking are: which banks are live, which markets are covered beyond the UAE, and how much of the underlying complexity is absorbed by the provider versus passed on to the merchant.
The framework creates the foundation. The provider determines what you can actually build on it.