UAE’s Neobank Debuts Country’s First Digital Banking Platform

YAP, the first independent digital banking platform in the United Arab Emirates, has launched as of Sunday (March 7), Reuters writes.

The Dubai-based firm is angling to become a leader in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

While YAP doesn’t have a banking license, it is partnered with RAK Bank, which provides international bank account numbers for YAP users and secures their funding with its own banking license. YAP, following in the footsteps of other neobanks with no licenses, doesn’t offer loans and mortgages but does offer spending and budgeting analytics, peer-to-peer payments, remittance services and bill payments.

In addition, YAP is looking to partner with other countries’ banks, including ones in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Ghana, according to head of product Katral-Nada Hassan.

Hassan said there were difficulties for FinTechs trying to expand to the area, which has several gaps in its banking ecosystem, and global leaders like Revolut don’t have a presence in the UAE.

“There are a lot of FinTechs right now looking at partnering with banks, but that requires a lot of discussion, relationship building … It is not an easy thing to do,” she said, according to Reuters.

YAP CEO and founder Marwan Hachem said the “FinTech revolution has become very popular in other parts of the world and we saw a gap and unique need for this service in the Middle East,” Reuters reports.

To fill the gap, some UAE banks in recent years have launched their own digital bank offerings, including LIV by Emirates NBD and Mashreq Neo by Mashreq Bank.

Evans Munyuki, chief digital officer of banking group Emirates NBD, told PYMNTS in 2019 that small businesses, despite being a strong backbone of the economy, often lack access to banking services.

He said the banking group was looking at blockchain in a data exchange effort with the government to help boost SMB banking accounts.