PhonePe secures preliminary UAE payment-licence approvals
PhonePe has received in-principle UAE approvals covering retail payments, card schemes and stored-value services, marking a step toward its first overseas operating market. Final clearance from the UAE Central Bank is still required and no launch timeline has been disclosed.
What happened
Indian fintech PhonePe received in-principle UAE approval for retail payments, card schemes and stored-value licences, its first overseas business. Final
Key facts
- Two preliminary UAE payment licences
- 72 crore registered users as of August 2026
- Over 5 crore merchants as of August 2026
- Launched in India in 2016
Why this matters
PhonePe’s broader UAE permissions could position it for partnerships across merchants, card networks and stored-value products as it establishes a local fintech footprint.
What to watch
- Final UAE Central Bank licence issuance, conditions attached to approval and authorized product categories.
- Announcement of a UAE launch date, local management team, legal entity, capital commitment or banking partner.
- Evidence that PhonePe can offer domestic wallet funding, remittance, card products or merchant acquiring rather than only visitor QR payments.
- Merchant rollout announcements involving major malls, supermarkets, hospitality groups, airports or Indian-diaspora retail clusters.
- Competitive responses from e&, Careem Pay, Payit, Botim, banks, remittance houses and India-linked payment providers.
- Changes in UAE-India payment-rail interoperability, cross-border UPI settlement rules or digital-wallet regulation.
- Seek final UAE Central Bank authorization and disclose the specific regulated entities and permitted activities.
- Secure a UAE sponsor-bank, acquiring-bank and local settlement partnership to support wallet funding, card issuance or merchant acquiring.
- Target Indian expatriate remittance, salary, retail and travel-payment use cases before pursuing mass-market UAE wallet adoption.
- Expand UPI-linked QR acceptance and negotiate interoperability with UAE payment rails, card networks and large merchant groups.
- Use UAE operations as a regulatory and commercial template for further Gulf expansion, especially remittance-linked corridors.