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When the Central Bank of the UAE launched its CBUAE FIT Program back in 2023, the ambition was almost audacious: rebuild the entire backbone of the UAE’s financial system, payments, identity, data, digital currency, cloud infrastructure, from scratch, within three years.
Three years later, the CBUAE has announced the program is 85% complete. That’s not a press release milestone. That’s nine of the most complex pieces of financial infrastructure a central bank can build, most of them already live and operational, with full integration targeted for the end of 2026.
This article breaks down what has actually been built, why it matters to every fintech operating or planning to operate in the UAE, and what the final 15% means for the road ahead.
What Is the CBUAE FIT Program?
The Financial Infrastructure Transformation (FIT) Program is a nine-pillar digital transformation plan launched by the CBUAE in 2023 as part of a strategy to accelerate the digital transformation of financial services, with stated goals of driving financial inclusion, achieving a cashless society, and promoting payment innovation.
The program is part of the country’s We the UAE 2031 vision and also aligns with the UAE Digital Economy Strategy, which aims to double the digital economy’s contribution to non-oil GDP from 11.7% to over 20% within ten years.
It’s worth understanding what the nine pillars mean in practice. These aren’t nine policy papers. There are nine operational systems being built, tested, and deployed, some of which are already redefining how money moves in the country.
The Nine Pillars – What’s Been Built
1. Aani – Instant Payments, Anytime
Aani is the UAE’s 24/7 real-time payments platform, and it is fully operational. It allows individuals and businesses to transfer money at any time of day without the batch-processing delays that still characterize many regional systems. For residents settling rent at midnight or businesses clearing invoices on weekends, it’s already changed the baseline expectation for what payments feel like.
2. Jaywan – The UAE’s Own Card Scheme
Jaywan, whose name translates to precious pearl, was launched as the UAE’s domestic card payment scheme, the first of its kind for the country. Before Jaywan, every card transaction in the UAE was routed through international networks, with associated costs and data dependencies. Jaywan changes that, establishing payment sovereignty and keeping transaction data within the national ecosystem.
3. Digital Dirham – The UAE’s CBDC
The Digital Dirham is the CBUAE’s central bank digital currency, and it has moved well beyond the pilot phase. A transfer was executed between the Ministry of Finance and the Dubai Department of Finance via the mBridge payments platform, with settlement completed in under two minutes. In January 2024, the UAE also completed its first cross-border payment using the Digital Dirham through the mBridge platform, transferring AED 50 million directly to China.
The retail public rollout is the next milestone, and the CBUAE has confirmed that a retail Digital Dirham launch is planned for 2026.
4. Sovereign Financial Cloud – A World First
The Central Bank of the UAE has taken a major stride in reshaping the nation’s financial landscape with the launch of the world’s first sovereign financial cloud services infrastructure, a secure, nationally controlled digital platform designed to host and protect the country’s critical banking data, applications, and services.
Built in partnership with Core42, a technology subsidiary of G42, the platform is part of the CBUAE FIT program and embeds advanced artificial intelligence and analytics tools that enable banks and other licensed financial institutions to automate processes, unlock real-time insights, and innovate faster.
The significance here goes beyond cloud migration. It means critical financial data no longer depends on external global providers; it stays within UAE borders, under regulatory oversight.
5. eKYC Platform – Digital Onboarding at Scale
The Central Bank of the UAE has announced the creation of a nationwide unified electronic Know Your Customer platform, with Swedish technology firm Norbloc AB named as its technical partner. The platform is designed to eliminate the duplication of customer due diligence processes, lower compliance costs, and bolster the UAE’s standing in global digital finance.
For fintechs, this is particularly significant, as it dramatically reduces the operational costs and friction of onboarding and brings financial services to populations who previously faced barriers to accessing branches.
6. Open Finance – Mandatory and Already Live
The UAE’s open finance regulation was issued in June 2024 and is coming into effect in phases. It consists of a trust framework, an API Hub, and Common Infrastructural Services providing open finance access for cross-sectoral data sharing and transaction initiation. Participation is mandatory for all financial institutions subject to CBUAE supervision.
The mandatory nature is what sets the UAE apart from markets where open banking adoption has stalled due to voluntary participation. Every CBUAE-supervised institution must participate to create a unified, standardized data layer that third-party fintechs can build on.
The CBUAE has also joined Project Aperta, an initiative launched by the Bank for International Settlements to connect domestic open finance infrastructures across multiple jurisdictions, including the UK’s FCA, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Banco Central do Brasil, and others.
7. Debt Market Platform
A digital platform for debt instruments and trade finance, supporting supply chain finance, letters of credit, and trade credit within a structured digital environment.
8. Stablecoin Regulatory Framework
The CBUAE approved a new licensing system for stablecoins, one of the clearest regulatory signals in the region that digital asset businesses have a structured, legal path to operating in the UAE. This positions both Abu Dhabi and Dubai ahead of most global markets in providing regulatory certainty for stablecoin issuers.
9. Supervisory Technology and Data Infrastructure
The ninth pillar focuses on the CBUAE’s internal capabilities, advanced monitoring systems, risk detection, and data management tools that enable regulators to maintain oversight of a rapidly digitalizing sector in near real time.
The Regulatory Layer Underneath – CB Law 2025
The CBUAE FIT Program doesn’t operate in isolation. In September 2025, Federal Decree-Law No. 6 of 2025 came into effect, a landmark overhaul that consolidates the regulation of banks, payment providers, and insurers under a single framework, introduces new licensing requirements for enabling technology providers, and imposes higher penalty provisions.
The new law brings any person carrying on, offering, issuing, or facilitating, whether directly or indirectly a licensed financial activity, regardless of the medium, technology or form employed under the CBUAE’s regulatory supervision. In plain terms: if you build infrastructure that enables payments or financial services in the UAE, you may now need a license.
Entities newly in scope have until 16 September 2026 to regularise licensing and compliance. That deadline matters for fintechs, API providers, and fintech-adjacent tech companies who may not have historically considered themselves regulated entities.
Why the CBUAE FIT Program Matters for Fintechs
The CBUAE FIT Program was never solely a central bank exercise. It was designed to create infrastructure that private companies can build on.
The UAE’s digital transformation projects aim to attract 260 global fintech companies as part of a strategy to enhance economic opportunities. These initiatives also aim to open new markets, attracting 180 million new customers and 600 million e-commerce customers.
What the program creates, in practical terms, is a leveled playing field with dramatically lower infrastructure costs. A fintech launching in the UAE in 2026 has access to:
- A real-time payment rails (Aani) it doesn’t have to build
- A unified eKYC infrastructure that eliminates repetitive onboarding
- An open finance layer with standardized APIs to access financial data
- A sovereign cloud environment with embedded AI tools
- A regulatory framework that, for the first time, also covers tech providers enabling financial services
That combination is genuinely rare. Most markets offer one or two of these elements. The UAE is building all nine simultaneously.
What Full Integration in 2026 Actually Means
85% complete is not the finish line. What remains is arguably the hardest part: ensuring all nine pillars function as one connected system, not nine separate initiatives.
Full integration means that when a customer opens a bank account (eKYC), makes a payment (Aani or Digital Dirham), that transaction is processed through sovereign cloud infrastructure, their data is accessible via open finance APIs, and a fintech can offer them a personalized product, all within a single regulatory perimeter governed by CB Law 2025.
That is the system the CBUAE is building. And based on the pace of delivery, five operational pillars in three years, a world-first sovereign cloud in February 2026, a live CBDC government transaction in November 2025, there’s every reason to take the 2026 integration deadline seriously.
What the CBUAE FIT Program Means for the UAE’s Global Fintech Position
The UAE’s fintech sector has continued to grow and mature following increased adoption of digital payments and e-commerce, and an expanding digital banking landscape, and the CBUAE FIT Program is both a product of that growth and the infrastructure designed to accelerate it further.
The combination of the Digital Dirham’s cross-border capabilities via mBridge, the mandatory open finance framework, the sovereign cloud, and a new Central Bank law that covers tech providers as well as financial institutions represents a country building financial sovereignty and financial leadership simultaneously.
For fintech founders, compliance teams, and investors watching the UAE market, the CBUAE FIT Program is not just a regulatory update. It is the operating system on which the next generation of UAE financial services will run. Understanding it, pillar by pillar, regulation by regulation, is now an essential context for anyone building or operating in this market.