Canadian fintech company Nuvei Corporation (TSX:NVEI) announced today that it has secured an in-principle approval for a Category II Retail Services License from the Central Bank of the UAE, representing a significant strategic expansion in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and strengthening its global its presence and engagement in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The Retail Services Class II License enables Nuvei to offer its comprehensive suite of payment technology to businesses operating in the booming UAE market, including direct local acquisition, payment aggregation services and domestic and cross-border funds transfers. Through direct local acquisition, Nuvei gains greater control over the payment lifecycle, further ensuring optimized payment acceptance rates and lower processing costs for its customers.
Nuvei already has a strong commercial presence and existing high-profile partnerships in the region. This expansion across the MENA region confirms Nuvei’s commitment to supporting the growth of its customers both locally and internationally.
Philip Fayer, President and CEO of Nuvei, commented:
“Our mission is to connect our customers with their customers more deeply through payments, wherever those customers are and how they want to pay. Expanding our global license portfolio has been a key objective in this regard and we can now offer the full power of our payments platform to support the growth ambitions of businesses operating in the UAE.”
This announcement is the latest from Nuvei as it continues to strengthen its global reach, including expanding its local market capabilities to more than 50 countries. In 2024 Nuvei has already announced that it had secured a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and is the first global payment company to offer local direct acquisitions in Colombia.