Interpolitan Money Gets CBUAE In-Principle Approval for a Stored Value Facilities Licence

Interpolitan Money, a London-headquartered company that provides cross-border payments and capital infrastructure, has received in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) for a Stored Value Facilities (SVF) licence, according to a company release dated 4 November. Final authorisation is still pending, and the company has to meet the CBUAE’s remaining requirements before it gets there.

Interpolitan says it plans to combine acquiring and issuing on one platform in the UAE once the licence is final. The next phase, it says, is building the systems, processes, controls and local operating capabilities that approval requires. The release gives no timeline for final authorisation, no UAE launch date and no client numbers, transaction volumes or revenue.

“This approval is an important step, but it is not the end of the process,” said Rishi Patel, Interpolitan Money’s founder and chief executive.

What the company does

Interpolitan serves businesses, family offices, funds and intermediaries with global accounts, international payments, foreign exchange, escrow, ownership structures and fixed-income investment solutions. It says it operates in more than 160 countries and supports more than 50 currencies. Those are the company’s own figures.

The release lists regulated entities in four jurisdictions: an FCA-authorised electronic money issuer in the UK, a DFSA-authorised entity in the Dubai International Financial Centre, which has held permissions for managing assets and advising or arranging on money services since August 2025, a payment service provider authorised by India’s IFSCA, and a money service business registered with Canada’s FINTRAC.

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Where it sits among SVF approvals

Pemo, a Dubai spend management platform, announced its own in-principle SVF approval on 28 July and has said it won’t speculate on when the full licence will arrive. In-principle approval is the CBUAE’s first stage. A company cannot carry out SVF activities until the final licence is issued.

FAQs

Editor’s Take: The release says what Interpolitan has been approved for and what it plans to combine, but not when. The details to ask for are the expected date of final authorisation, which entity holds the CBUAE application, and what acquiring and issuing in the UAE will look like for its first customers. The CBUAE has not published a statement on the approval, so it rests on the company’s own announcement.