UAE Central Bank Gives Interpolitan Money In-Principle Approval for Stored Value Licence

The company plans to offer UAE merchants both acquiring and issuing services from a single platform, but it cannot launch those services until the central bank grants final approval. In-principle approval is an intermediate stage in the CBUAE's licensing process: firms must then show the regulator that their systems, controls and local operations are ready before a full licence is issued.

"This approval is an important step, but it is not the end of the process," said Rishi Patel, the company's founder and chief executive. "We now move into the next phase of build and operational readiness as we work to complete the remaining requirements ahead of final authorisation."

The company said it would spend that phase developing the systems, processes, controls and local operating capabilities needed for its proposed UAE activities, working with the central bank throughout. It did not give a timetable for final authorisation.

Interpolitan Money already has a presence in the country. It operates in Dubai and has a separately regulated entity in the Dubai International Financial Centre, Interpolitan Money (DIFC) Limited, which has been authorised by the Dubai Financial Services Authority since August 2025 with permissions for managing assets and advising or arranging on money services. The CBUAE application is a separate process covering activities that fall under the central bank's own regulation, onshore rather than inside the financial free zone.

The company serves businesses, family offices, funds and intermediaries that operate across several jurisdictions. Besides London and the UAE, it has operations in India and Canada, and says it supports activity in more than 160 countries and over 50 currencies.

The central bank's Stored Value Facilities regime governs digital wallets and other prepaid payment products, and a string of international payment firms have sought licences under it as they build onshore businesses in the UAE. Checkout.com, for example, received in-principle approval for an SVF licence from the CBUAE in an earlier round.

The approval is one part of what Interpolitan Money describes as a wider international expansion strategy. Its next step is to satisfy the central bank's remaining conditions before it can begin serving UAE merchants.