PhonePe secures in-principle UAE licences, plans Aani and Jaywan support

PhonePe has secured in-principle UAE licences for retail payment services, card schemes and stored-value facilities. Following final approvals, it plans a local launch supporting domestic rails Aani and Jaywan, alongside cross-border QR payments for Indian travellers.

— Source publishedTue, 22 Sept, 2026, 14:27 IST·First seen Tue, 22 Sept, 2026, 14:40 IST·Source Business Standard · Companies

What happened

PhonePe secured in-principle UAE licences for retail payments, card schemes and stored-value facilities, its first local international market. It plans to

Key facts

  • 700 million registered users in India
  • 50 million merchants in India
  • Two UAE payments licences: Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes (RPSCS) and Stored Value Facilities (SVF)

Why this matters

PhonePe’s planned Aani and Jaywan support makes UAE banks, payment processors, merchant acquirers and travel-distribution partners priority targets for alliances that accelerate local scale.

What to watch

  • Final licence issuance, scope of approvals and any capital, data-localization or local-entity conditions.
  • Named UAE acquiring-bank, Aani, Jaywan, card-network and merchant partners.
  • Evidence that Indian-issued UPI or PhonePe-linked payment methods are accepted at scale by UAE merchants.
  • Launch timing, wallet/KYC eligibility, FX pricing and whether products target residents, tourists or both.
  • Merchant acceptance counts, payment volumes and active-user disclosures after launch.
  • Responses from e&, Careem Pay, bank wallet apps, Alipay+, Visa, Mastercard and local acquirers.
  • Expansion announcements into Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman or other GCC markets following the UAE entry.
  • Obtain final UAE Central Bank approvals and disclose the licensed operating entities and permitted activities.
  • Sign acquiring and merchant-distribution partnerships with UAE banks, payment processors, malls, airlines, travel platforms and Indian diaspora-focused businesses.
  • Integrate Aani instant-payment and Jaywan card rails, then certify QR acceptance and settlement flows.
  • Launch Indian traveller payment features first, potentially combining UPI-linked QR discovery, FX transparency and merchant offers.
  • Use UAE operations as a regulatory and commercial template for expansion into other GCC corridors with high Indian traveller and remittance volumes.
  • Compete for merchant acceptance by offering lower-cost domestic-rail routing, settlement tools and India-UAE commerce analytics.