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Checkout.com Brings Visa Direct Push-To-Card To The UAE
The payment company is the first acquirer in the UAE to launch Visa Direct’s solution, enabling safe, instant money transfers.
Checkout.com has taken the UAE a step closer to its goal of a fully digital economy by becoming the first acquirer in the country to offer Visa Direct’s Push-to-Card solution. The new service will streamline money transfers for both businesses and consumers, enabling near-instant transactions across local and international markets.
Visa Direct connects over 190 markets and supports over 8.5 billion endpoints, including cards, bank accounts, and digital wallets. Push-to-Card transactions enhance efficiency for business users and consumers by allowing money to be sent quickly and easily to eligible Visa cards while leveraging the company’s secure network for reliability.

“Visa Direct is transforming the way money moves globally, and we are excited to see Checkout.com leverage this technology to meet the evolving demands of businesses and individuals alike by offering them a faster, more convenient, and secure way to send and receive funds,” said Shahebaz Khan, Senior Vice President and Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions, CEMEA.
The UAE has been at the forefront of digital payment adoption, driven by a national push toward a cashless economy. Remo Giovanni Abbondandolo, General Manager for MENA at Checkout.com, emphasized this shift: “By providing seamless, secure, and real-time payout capabilities, we’re empowering merchants with the agility to thrive in this fast-evolving landscape, while effectively meeting the growing consumer demand for speed and convenience. The Push-to-Card solution not only reinforces our commitment to powering payment performance but also showcases our agility in bringing yet another innovation to the UAE market.”
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Checkout.com’s latest MENA eCommerce data highlights the region’s increasing engagement with financial technologies, with around 80% of consumers participating in activities beyond basic online payments, such as money transfers and personal wealth management. The growing demand for real-time financial transactions has made fast, seamless payment solutions a priority.
To meet this demand, Account Funding Transactions (AFTs) have gained traction in the UAE. By integrating AFTs with Visa’s Push-to-Card services, Checkout.com is helping merchants offer secure, real-time account top-ups. Currently processing over one million AFTs per month with Visa, Checkout.com is now playing a leading role in modernizing financial transactions in the region.
News
Dirham-Backed Stablecoin DDSC Enters Live Phase In UAE
Central Bank approval moves the dirham-backed token into deployment, targeting regulated payments and settlement flows.
The UAE has cleared the launch of DDSC, a dirham-backed stablecoin now entering live operation after approval from the Central Bank. The move pushes the project beyond its pilot phase and into the country’s regulated financial system.
The token is backed by a consortium led by IHC, Sirius International Holding and First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), framing it as an institutional instrument rather than a consumer crypto product. DDSC was first announced in April 2025, but regulatory clearance now allows deployment and integration across approved channels.
DDSC runs on ADI Chain, a Layer 2 blockchain built by the Abu Dhabi-based ADI Foundation. The infrastructure is designed for governance and performance requirements expected by large institutions, linking blockchain settlement with existing compliance and oversight frameworks.
The focus is practical, targeting treasury settlements, high-value payments, trade and supply-chain transactions, and programmable financial flows for regulated entities. FAB plans to offer access to the token through approved platforms for its clients, keeping the rollout inside controlled banking environments.
“DDSC marks a defining milestone in the UAE’s digital finance journey,” said Syed Basar Shueb, CEO of IHC. “With the Central Bank’s approval and our transition into live operation, we are delivering trusted, institutional-grade infrastructure that strengthens resilience, accelerates innovation, and expands what is possible in regulated digital payments”.
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FAB says the project reflects how stablecoins can sit within traditional finance when risk controls are built in from the outset. “This milestone underscores that stablecoins can be integrated responsibly into the financial system when built to meet rigorous regulatory and risk requirements,” said Futoon Hamdan AlMazrouei, Group Head of Personal, Business, Wealth and Privileged Client Banking Group at FAB.
The launch reinforces the UAE’s strategy of pushing digital finance through regulation instead of open-ended crypto experimentation. Stablecoins in this model are positioned less as trading assets and more as programmable extensions of national currency, aimed at institutional scale and government use cases.
