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Middle East

Fintech reporting from Middle East. Stories across banking, payments, infrastructure, capital and policy that touch this region.

142 STORIES PUBLISHED · UPDATED DAILY

MIDDLE EAST · 3 MIN READ · 16 OCT 2026

Sharjah Islamic Bank’s Profit Rises 9% to AED 1.2 Billion as Growth Slows and Impairments Climb

Operating income rose faster than profit as costs grew 17% and impairment charges more than tripled, while financing grew almost 19% this year.

MIDDLE EAST

DFSA Fines Hayman-Woodward’s DIFC Unit $454,367 for Six Years of Unregistered Company Services

16 OCT 2026

BAHRAIN

National Bank of Bahrain Signs Two Cross-Border Payment Deals in Three Days, With TerraPay and Partior

16 OCT 2026

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MIDDLE EAST

Mashreq Pilots IBM’s AI Agents on the Integration Platform Behind Its Payments

IBM says early results show up to 70% less time spent on integration design and troubleshooting, on a platform handling 650 transactions a second.

16 OCT 2026

MIDDLE EAST

Ant International Wins Full UAE Central Bank Licences for Antom and WorldFirst

Fourteen months after in-principle approval, Ant has two full licences from the Central Bank of the UAE, but no launch date for either business.

15 OCT 2026

MIDDLE EAST

Rain Gets Full VARA Licence for Dubai Exchange and Broker-Dealer Services

VARA's register shows Rain's Dubai arm was licensed on 5 October, a day before Kraken's parent, and eight days before Rain announced it.

15 OCT 2026

MIDDLE EAST

Saudi Super-App barq to Absorb Bahrain’s Beyon Money, Gaining Its Licences

The telecoms group's wallet will become part of barq, which says the deal is about Beyon Money's regulatory licences. No terms were disclosed.

14 OCT 2026

MIDDLE EAST

Standard Chartered Holds Ripple’s RLUSD Stablecoin for Clients in Dubai, Plans LMAX Collateral Link

The bank's DFSA-regulated DIFC branch now offers RLUSD custody, and a planned link would let clients trade on LMAX without moving the tokens.

14 OCT 2026

MIDDLE EAST

Fintech Takes $1.03 Billion, or 62%, of MENA Startup Funding in Q3 2026

Startups raised $1.65 billion, double the second quarter, with three Saudi fintech deals accounting for nearly half of it.

14 OCT 2026

MIDDLE EAST

Kraken Wins Full Dubai Licence and Plans Dirham Crypto Trading Within Weeks

VARA's register shows Kraken's parent was licensed on 6 October, a week before the announcement and after preliminary approval in May.

13 OCT 2026

MIDDLE EAST

Qatar Opens Riyal Government Bonds and Sukuk to Global Investors Through Euroclear

Qatar Central Bank (QCB) and Euroclear are setting up a settlement link that will let international investors buy and hold Qatari riyal government bonds and sukuk through Euroclear Bank, the two announced on 5 October.

7 OCT 2026

MIDDLE EAST

Gulf Workers Sent a Record $161 Billion Abroad in 2025, More Than the US

GCC-Stat data show outward remittances rose 13.6%, with the UAE the largest sender as payment links to India and other corridors are still being built.

7 OCT 2026

MIDDLE EAST

Dubai’s VARA Sets Minimum Scope for Crypto Firms’ Proof-of-Reserve Audits After 2025 Review

The regulator has told auditors what they must check on client crypto holdings, and signed an intelligence-sharing deal with the UAE's financial intelligence unit.

7 OCT 2026

MIDDLE EAST

NEOPAY to Buy 65% of noon payments, Taking UAE Acquirer Into Saudi Arabia and Egypt

The Arcapita and DgPays-backed merchant acquirer is buying control of the payments arm of e-commerce group noon. The price has not been disclosed.

7 OCT 2026

MIDDLE EAST

Ant International Moves Dirhams on HSBC’s Tokenised Deposit Network in UAE Pilot

It is the third global bank tokenised-deposit move in the UAE in ten days, and the only one so far to move dirhams.

7 OCT 2026