News

Tarabut Gateway & Visa Aim To Redefine Open Banking In MENA

The partnership will merge the capabilities of both companies as they plan innovative new solutions for the MENA region.

Published

3 years ago

May 9, 2023

Nour Nasir

Tarabut

Tarabut Gateway, the MENA region’s leading Open Banking platform, has announced a new strategic partnership with global payment leader Visa.

The companies will use their extensive Open Banking experience to collaborate on new products and solutions, such as credit risk assessments and lending, cross-border payments, and advanced analytical tools.

Tarabut Gateway currently offers various API-based solutions enabling banks, merchants, and fintech startups to build financial apps. Meanwhile, the company’s extensive Open Banking infrastructure continues to expand across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain.

tarabut gateway partnership with visa

The new partnership with Visa aims to enhance customer experiences and foster innovation across the region. It comes after Tarabut Gateway’s recent 32 million USD investment drive, in which Visa was a key participant.

Visa’s investment in Tarabut Gateway follows its recent acquisition of leading Open Banking platform Tink and represents part of a broader MENA strategy.

Abdulla Almoayed, Founder and CEO of Tarabut Gateway, explained his excitement about the collaboration:

“Our existing close relationship, through Visa’s investment in Tarabut Gateway, has paved the way for this collaboration. The progress of open banking in the Middle East in recent years has been remarkable [and] together with Visa, we will leverage our data infrastructure to bring new and improved products to customers”.

Also Read: A Guide To Digital Payment Methods In The Middle East

Meanwhile, Otto Williams, Senior Vice-President and Head of Product, Partnerships, and Digital Solutions for Visa Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa, noted:

“The future of financial services is being shaped by next-gen digital innovation, with Open Banking and data sharing serving as a significant driver to help consumers better manage and access their finances. Our shared commitment to next-generation solutions will enable us to transform the financial landscape and offer cutting-edge services to our customers”.

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

6 days 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.