UAE launches first international Open Finance payments rail via Spare

Dubai-based Spare has executed the United Arab Emirates' first cross-border Open Finance payment, plugging the country's national AlTareq scheme into international rails and giving fintechs a single API to move money across borders without stitching together correspondent banking relationships.

The pilot transaction, settled with UAE banks, is the first live international payment initiated under the Central Bank of the UAE's Open Finance Regulatory Framework. Spare holds an In-Principle Approval (IPA) from the regulator to operate within that framework. The company is already licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain as both an Account Information Service Provider (AISP) and Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP), and operates in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

For finance teams, the practical change is that initiating an international payment from a UAE account can now be handled through a regulated Open Finance API rather than through a patchwork of bilateral banking integrations.

What problem is this actually solving for UAE businesses?

Cross-border payment costs in the Middle East and Africa remain among the highest in the world. The G20's roadmap for cross-border payments, coordinated by the Financial Stability Board, targets an average global cost of 1% on retail payments by 2027, a benchmark the MEA corridor has consistently missed. According to projections cited by Spare, cross-border payment flows in the region are on track to reach $31 billion by 2030.

The bottleneck for regional businesses is not a lack of providers, it is the integration burden. A UAE-based fintech wanting to offer multi-currency payouts has historically needed to negotiate, integrate, and reconcile with each bank individually. Spare's pitch is consolidation: one API endpoint, multiple bank counterparties, one compliance perimeter aligned with CBUAE rules.

How does AlTareq fit into the international flow?

AlTareq is the UAE's domestic instant payments scheme, operated under the central

bank's payment infrastructure programme. Spare's solution uses AlTareq as the initiation layer, meaning the payer-side authentication and authorisation occur within the regulated domestic rail before the funds are routed internationally. This matters because it brings cross-border initiation under the same Open Finance consent and security standards that govern domestic Open Banking transactions in the UAE, rather than sitting outside them.

Dalal AlRayes, Co-founder and CEO of Spare, framed the launch as a response to a specific growth constraint for regional firms. "One of the top factors holding back the international growth of regional business leaders is difficulty accessing reliable international payment solutions," she said, adding that the company's goal is to make cross-border transactions "as simple as a local transfer."

How does Spare compare to other Gulf Open Finance players?

The UAE Open Finance market has accelerated since the CBUAE published its framework in 2024, with licensed and in-principle-approved firms competing to define the infrastructure layer. Saudi Arabia's parallel push, led by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) and platforms such as Lean Technologies and Tarabut, has focused largely on domestic data aggregation and account-to-account payments. Bahrain, where Spare first secured its AISP and PISP licences from the Central Bank of Bahrain, was the first Gulf jurisdiction to mandate Open Banking in 2020.

Spare's move to layer cross-border payments on top of a domestic Open Finance licence is a step few regional competitors have yet taken publicly. It also positions the company closer to European players such as Token.io and TrueLayer, which have built variable recurring payment and international payment products on top of UK and EU PSD2 rails.

What should investors and finance leaders watch next?

Three signals will indicate whether this becomes a category, not just a product. First, transaction volume disclosed under the IPA phase before Spare moves to a full licence. Second, the corridor mix: whether flows extend beyond GCC-to-GCC payments into harder corridors such as MEA-to-Europe or MEA-to-South Asia, where remittance and B2B costs are highest. Third, bank participation: international Open Finance only works at scale if a critical mass of UAE banks expose payment initiation endpoints under standardised CBUAE specifications.

Why This Matters to FinanceX Readers

Cross-border payments are the most expensive friction point in regional finance, and the first jurisdiction to wire its domestic instant payment scheme into a regulated Open Finance international rail will set the template for the rest of MEA.

For investors backing UAE and GCC fintech, the Spare launch is an early indicator that the region's Open Finance frameworks are moving from data access into transactional infrastructure, where the revenue and defensibility live.

For corporate treasurers and finance leaders, it signals the start of a shift away from bilateral bank integrations toward API-first cross-border payouts under a single regulatory perimeter.

By Koen Vanderhoydonk - FinanceX Magazine