The new Visa and Emirates NBD agreement is set to change how card payments in the UAE are processed. In this deal, Emirates NBD is announced as Visa’s official settlement partner. This means that if someone uses a Visa card for any transactions, the payment will be locally settled in dirhams rather than being processed internationally first.
What Visa-Emirates NBD Deal Means?
Every time a user taps their Visa card to pay, the money passes through a process before they are transferred. A part of that process was done through international banking systems, outside the UAE. However, with this new agreement, the entire process happens within the country, in dirhams. It will be handled by the Emirates NBD. This brings faster transaction processes, greater reliability, and low processing costs as its benefits.
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Emirates NBD is UAE’s largest bank with over 10 million active customers. It operates around 13 countries in the Middle East , North Africa, and Türkiye, the MENAT region. Total assets of the bank stood at AED 1.2 Trillion as of March 2026, ultimately making Emirates NBD as the natural choice to handle such large-scale financial responsibility.
What’s In It For The UAE?
For years, the UAE has been working towards reducing its dependence on the international financial systems and building a stronger payment infrastructure domestically. This agreement is a step forward in that direction. Ahmad Al Qassim, Group Head of Wholesale Banking at Emirates NBD, said that the partnership will streamline the domestic settlement processes.
He further said that this agreement directly supports the UAE government’s vision of becoming a fully cashless economy. For residents, it means smoother and faster everyday transactions. For businesses, it means fewer delays and lower costs when receiving card payments.
The scale of digital payments in the UAE is also notable, 97 percent of all Emirates NBD financial transactions happen outside of bank branches through apps, cards, and online payment platforms. The agreement ensures that those transactions are grounded as locally as possible.
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