News

Sarwa Launches High-Yield Cash Accounts In The Sarwa App

The account will offer nearly 4x the interest of regular UAE savings accounts, and deep integration with the Sarwa investing platform.

Published

4 years ago

February 10, 2023

Nour Nasir

Sarwa

Sarwa, a popular UAE investing platform and app, has launched a new feature known as Sarwa Save. The latest offering is a high-yield cash saving account with several exciting features, the foremost of which is a very respectable 3% interest rate. The idea behind the account is that it will serve as a parking place for cash earned while investing and comes with zero transfer costs for AED local accounts, no account minimums, no management fees, plus fast online setup through the app.

“While we are strong believers in long-term passive investing, we are also conscious of how market conditions might affect short/medium-term goals. A short-term investing option is an important part of a good financial plan. Our clients were asking for a product to park their cash while earning returns, with the same easy access and simple experience as their Sarwa Invest, Sarwa Trade, and Sarwa Crypto accounts. As always, we listened to our community and decided to launch our fourth pillar,” says Mark Chahwan, Co-founder and CEO of Sarwa.

Sarwa’s 100,000 active users will now find it easier than ever to centralize the entire investment process in a single app, whether they’re taking a hands-off, long-term approach or prefer the convenience of self-directed trading using a single service. It’s also worth noting that Sarwa offers Save Halal, a low-risk money market funds portfolio, which also projects a return of 3%.

Overview of Sarwa Save features:

3% interest rate.
Easy online setup and access to real human support.
Zero withdrawal fees. No lock-in period.
No account minimums.
No management fees.
No transfer costs for AED local accounts.
Deep integration with Sarwa Invest accounts.
Partition and label funds to enhance saving.

Sarwa Save looks like a promising financial product, especially as the average yield on a UAE savings account currently stands at around 0.8%.

Interested in setting up an account? Sarwa Save is available to new and existing users through the Sarwa website and mobile app.

Disclaimer: Sarwa Save is a product offered through Sarwa Digital Wealth (Capital) Limited that is regulated by the FSRA in the ADGM. This offering is not regulated by the DFSA. Sarwa is not a bank. We can unlock high-yield accounts through our banking partners.

News

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.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

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.