News

Paymentology And Wio Bank Hope To Transform UAE Banking

Paymentology’s card issuing and analytics will support Wio Bank’s next-generation services.

Published

3 years ago

March 29, 2023

paymentology and wio bank hope to transform uae banking

Paymentology, the world’s first truly global in-cloud card issuing platform, has joined forces with Wio Bank, the UAE’s first platform bank, in a bid to empower local businesses and consumers with modern digital banking solutions.

Wio Bank, launched in September 2022, is focused exclusively on digital and embedded banking services and applications and provides startups, freelancers, and small businesses with seamless access to banking solutions. The company’s Wio Business offering provides a simplified, fully digital business account service with supplementary tools that aid business management.

Wio Bank’s new partner, Paymentology, completes the digital banking puzzle by facilitating a wide range of card services, including Visa debit cards, plus Apple and Google Pay. The cloud-based card issuer also enables Wio developers to view a real-time data feed, providing detailed customer spending insights to help the bank tailor its solutions to the exact needs of local businesses.

UAE businesses have historically relied on brick-and-mortar branches to open accounts and make transactions. With their newly announced partnership, Wio and Paymentology are promising “fast, simplified and fully digital financial services” for small-to-medium businesses in the region.

Also Read: UAE Digital Technology Spending To Hit $20 Billion By 2026

“The UAE is at the forefront of innovation in digital financial services, making huge strides toward becoming a cashless society in the not-too-distant future. We’re incredibly proud of the role we are playing in supporting fintechs achieve their ambitions in the region with increasingly localized, customer-centric, and data-driven propositions,” says Rowan Brewer, CEO at Paymentology.

The latest announcement from Paymentology and Wio Bank comes as the UAE’s financial services sector undergoes a rapid transformation. Consumer demand for digital products and services is on the rise, with research by Visa revealing that 52% of Emirates consumers plan to go cashless by 2024, compared to 41% globally.

Related Topics:FinTech Paymentology United Arab Emirates

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YouTube Rolls Out Supervised Children’s Accounts Across MENA

An industry-first feed timer lets parents cap Shorts scrolling. Access can also be switched off entirely ahead of exam season.

Published

12 hours ago

July 10, 2026

Dana Saadeh

YouTube

YouTube has launched supervised kid accounts across the Middle East and North Africa, giving parents a way to hand their children the main YouTube app without handing over all of it. Announced in Dubai on July 2, the accounts are built directly into the platform rather than the standalone YouTube Kids app, and are aimed at families who feel a child has outgrown the curated library but isn’t ready for the open feed.

Parents can choose from three content settings, each broadly aligned with international content ratings. Explore covers educational videos, tutorials, arts and crafts, and dance. Explore More adds gaming and live streams. Most of YouTube opens up almost everything except videos rated 18+ or deemed inappropriate for supervised accounts.

The standout tool is an industry-first Shorts feed timer, which lets parents set daily limits on short-form scrolling. Set it to zero and Shorts disappears altogether – a lever YouTube suggests parents might pull ahead of exam season. Other protections are on by default for all users under 18: “Take a Break” and “Bedtime” reminders, no personalized ad targeting, autoplay switched off, and no ability to upload videos or write comments. The accounts are optional, and parents can end supervision at any time.

The kid accounts join supervised teen accounts already available across the region, which notify parents by email when a teenager uploads a video or starts a live stream.

“YouTube has been a huge part of families’ lives across this region for over 20 years,” said Javid Aslanov, head of YouTube Middle East and North Africa, citing Kantar research showing 95% of viewers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE agree YouTube has top content in education and learning.

Also Read: Tamper With The Recording LED & Meta’s Glasses Kill Camera

“It’s essential that we protect young people in – not from – the digital world,” added Garth Graham, YouTube’s head of health.

The new settings are rolling out gradually across the MENA, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and Iraq. The latest features can be set up through Family Center in the YouTube app or via Google Family Link.