Ant International secures Retail Payment Services and Stored Value Facilities licences from the Central Bank of the UAE

Ant International has obtained a Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes (Category II) licence and a Stored Value Facilities licence from the Central Bank of the UAE, giving it a directly regulated presence in the country alongside the partnership model it already uses for Alipay+.

The RPSCS licence is the step towards Antom, Ant International's merchant payment and digitisation arm, offering merchant acquiring in the UAE. Antom supports more than 300 payment methods and lets merchants reach consumers in over 200 markets in more than 140 currencies. The SVF licence lets WorldFirst, the group's global account service provider, offer cross-border financial services to UAE businesses. Alipay+ acceptance for wallet users continues through locally licensed banks and acquirers.

Ant International processes an average of 20 million transactions a day across payments, accounts, embedded credit and treasury management, and is building agentic payment and account products. Leiming Chen, senior vice president, said the company plans AI-powered payment and account solutions under the CBUAE framework.