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PayPal Links With NEO PAY To Power UAE E-Commerce
New integration lets UAE merchants accept PayPal at checkout, cutting friction for SMEs selling to customers abroad.
PayPal has struck a partnership with UAE acquirer NEO PAY to let local merchants accept PayPal payments, giving businesses a faster route to overseas customers and cross-border sales.
The deal connects PayPal directly to NEO PAY’s acquiring infrastructure, allowing online sellers to switch on PayPal at checkout without separate integrations or complex onboarding. For smaller merchants, that removes a common barrier to selling internationally: access to a payment method foreign shoppers already recognize.
The timing is deliberate. The UAE’s e-commerce market is projected to reach $21.18 billion by 2030, according to Mordor Intelligence, as online retail and digital services continue to outpace traditional channels. SMEs — about 94% of all businesses in the country and more than half of GDP — account for much of that activity, yet often lack the tools to handle cross-border payments at scale.
For PayPal, the agreement extends its footprint in the Middle East and Africa through a local partner rather than a standalone build-out. “Deepening our presence through this partnership with NEO PAY is a critical step in our regional growth strategy,” said Otto Williams, Senior Vice President, Regional Head and General Manager, Middle East and Africa, at PayPal. “By integrating PayPal, merchants, especially SMEs, can better serve today’s digital-first consumers and scale with confidence”.
Also Read: Saudi Digital Payments Reach 80% As Cash Use Shrinks
NEO PAY, which focuses on digital acquiring for e-commerce merchants, is positioning the tie-up as a way to broaden payment choice while keeping operations simple. “This partnership allows us to provide secure, trusted, and globally recognized payment options — enhancing the checkout experience and supporting our merchants’ growth across borders,” said Vibhor Mundhada, CEO of NEO PAY.
The move reflects a wider shift in the Gulf’s payments stack. Local processors are increasingly acting as gateways to global wallets and networks, a model that fits the UAE’s push to grow exports, support SMEs and cement its role as a regional digital commerce hub. For merchants, it’s straightforward: fewer hoops at checkout, more reach beyond the country’s borders.
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Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget
The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
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