The United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently took a decisive step toward fulfilling its open finance plans.
Lean Technologies, a renowned financial infrastructure provider, and Ziina, a fast-growing UAE-based payments platform, have launched the first live customer-initiated open finance payment.
Carried out under the Central Bank of the UAE’s (CBUAE) Open Finance framework, this is the first time real users have been able to initiate regulated, account-to-account bank payments directly within a consumer app using open finance APIs.
This development is likely the beginning of widespread everyday open finance adoption in the UAE.
From Framework to Functionality
Zinna is a licensed financial institution under a Stored Value Facility authorisation and recently became the first UAE company to deploy open finance payments for customers at a production scale.
This capability allows users to complete instant bank-to-bank transfers directly in the Ziina app, without switching to other platforms, relying on manual transfers or traditional payment flows.
The technology simply connects directly to the user’s bank accounts via regulated open finance APIs, delivering faster settlement, better transparency and improved security.
For the end user, confusion is eliminated by a simple, intuitive experience, the type that modern financial infrastructure espouses.
Co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Ziina, Faisal Toukan, believes the launch is a serious turning point for the local ecosystem.
He said: “Delivering the UAE’s first customer-initiated Open Finance payment marks an important step for the country’s financial ecosystem.”
“Regulated, API-driven payments operating at production scale are beginning to influence expectations around speed, transparency and trust.
“This is how forward-thinking policy translates into everyday financial behaviour.”
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Lean Technologies provide the foundation upon which the service is delivered, handling everything from secure bank connectivity to compliant payment and reliability.
Launched in 2019, Lean has since connected over two million bank accounts across the region while processing more than $4 billion in transactions.
Lean has established a reputation as an open finance pioneer in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, providing data and payments tools to empower the next generation of financial products.
CEO of Lean Technologies, Hisham Al-Falih, believes the launch is more than a tech milestone to be celebrated.
“Seeing open finance payments live in the UAE is a meaningful moment for the market,” he said.
“It reflects the Central Bank’s vision for modern, secure financial infrastructure and shows what becomes possible when strong connectivity meets thoughtful product execution.”
What This Means for iGaming Payments in the UAE
While consumer and payment merchants are the intended targets of the technology, its impact will be felt across several other industries, including the UAE’s newly regulated iGaming sector.
The best online casinos in the UAE featured on comparison platform https://haztayeb-uae.com/en/ are now answerable to the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA).
Payments will be one of the most challenging aspects for the GCGRA. Betting operators need to facilitate fast deposits and withdrawals to players.
Open finance-powered account-to-account payments address this pain point. Customer-initiated open finance payments allow licensed iGaming operators to offer seamless deposits without relying on intermediaries and cards.
It improves transparency for regulators, allowing them to track inflows and outflows while creating a more intuitive, faster experience for players. While the opening banking launch does not directly target iGaming, but the technology will facilitate payments in this sector.
Built Through Collaboration, Not Shortcuts
Months of close collaboration between Lean, Ziina, regulators, banks and platform partners yielded this potentially transformative result. Building this wasn’t as easy as simply plugging in an API.
Several teams coordinated to power through regulatory requirements, edge cases, reliability testing and scale considerations before the product was ready to use.
Ziina had a clear vision in mind for the product they wanted to build based on their user expectations, while Lean helped make the infrastructure dynamic, compliant and practically invisible.
The result is a seamless, effortless payment experience that hides all its complexity under multiple layers. This collaborative approach is a reflection of transformation of the UAE’s tech space. UtdPlug
