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Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates

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Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates News

money transfer, remittance

Rising cost of living boosts Mena remittance flows by 73%

The higher global cost of living in the Middle East and North Africa has resulted in a 73 percent increase in the remittance of money across the region, according to new research published this week. US global money transfer company Western Union found that 79 percent of those receiving funds in the Mena region between […]

Fed interest rates
  • Analysis

GCC economies to weather latest Fed rate hike

Gulf economies will be able to absorb the latest rate hike from the US Federal Reserve, but the ripple effect from the rise will still have repercussions throughout the region, according to economists. Despite uncertainty across the banking sector, the Fed raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, less than […]

The UAE granted a licence to Russia's MTS Bank only weeks ago

UAE reviewing status of Russian bank MTS

The central bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) has said it is assessing the status of MTS, a Russian bank to which it gave a licence only weeks previously. Marking the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US Treasury and the British foreign office said that they were sanctioning MTS Bank, […]

Cybercrime in the UAE has risen over the past 12 months

Anti-money laundering order in UAE to tackle stolen IDs

The UAE’s latest anti-money laundering guidance aims to tighten up rules related to digital IDs. While it will have little impact for traditional banks, it may weed out some of the weaker players in the fast-growing fintech sector. The advice issued by the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) last week focused on the use […]

UAE forecasts GDP growth at 7.6% in 2022 and 3.9% in 2023

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates expects real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7.6 percent this year, up from its previous expectation of 6.5 percent, state-owned WAM news agency reported. In its Q3 2022 review, the apex bank attributed the upward review to the robust performance of some non-oil sectors, including tourism, […]

Departing Zand co-founder and CEO Olivier Crespin

Zand CEO quits just months after UAE licence win

Zand, the digital banking platform that secured its licence from the Central Bank of the UAE in July, is on the hunt for a new CEO. The bank, which has launched corporate services with personal banking to follow soon, announced a leadership change on Tuesday with Olivier Crespin, co-founder and CEO, moving on “to pursue […]

UAE staff told to wait until next year for salary increases

The majority of UAE companies are resisting giving staff a boost in their salaries to help compensate for the rising cost of living, with most putting any increases off until next year. Reuters reported in August that Emirates NBD, Dubai’s largest bank, had given its staff a pay rise of up to eight percent to […]

More UAE banks must sign up for true benefits of instant payments

The Central Bank of the UAE needs to mandate more banks and financial institutions to sign up be ready for the roll out of its new instant payments system. The Emirates will soon join its neighbours Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Oman in offering the Instant Payments Platform (IPP), a new and more comprehensive real-time payments […]

Central Bank of the UAE

Central banks go digital, bit by bit

The turmoil in cryptocurrency markets this year has been a wake-up call to investors and regulators, prompting questions about how viable many digital currencies really are. According to CoinMarketCap, the total value of cryptocurrencies has slumped from almost $3 trillion in November 2021 to less than $1 trillion in September this year.  But not all […]