Visa Acceptance Platform Expands UAE Reach with Jaywan Domestic Card Integration

Visa has integrated Jaywan, the United Arab Emirates’ domestic card scheme, into its Visa Acceptance Platform to bolster online payment options for local merchants. This move allows payment service providers and acquirers to process Jaywan debit, credit, and prepaid cards for digital commerce, including recurring transactions and card-on-file payments, strengthening the UAE's sovereign financial infrastructure.

What was announced

The Visa Acceptance Platform now supports the acceptance of eligible Jaywan-branded cards for online transactions within the UAE. This integration enables participating merchants, acquirers, and payment service providers (PSPs) to offer the domestic scheme as a payment option across various digital use cases. The platform provides a unified suite of services, including payment acceptance, authentication, and tokenization capabilities through a single interface.

A key technical component of this rollout is the support for Jaywan Card-on-File network tokenization through Visa’s Token Management Service (TMS). This functionality is specifically designed to help businesses securely manage subscriptions, recurring payments, and other digital commerce use cases. By utilizing TMS, merchants can store card data more securely while reducing friction for repeat customers, as the system replaces sensitive card details with unique digital identifiers.

This development follows a foundational agreement reached in March 2025 between Al Etihad Payments and Visa. That initial partnership focused on the issuance of co-badged "Jaywan-Visa" debit and prepaid cards, which allowed UAE residents to use their domestic cards internationally via Visa’s global network. The current expansion focuses on the acceptance side of the ecosystem, ensuring that the domestic scheme is deeply embedded into the digital commerce infrastructure used by UAE-based businesses and financial institutions.

"We are very excited to announce that Jaywan is now accepted through the Visa Acceptance Platform, which materially increases online acceptance for Jaywan cards in the UAE. Jaywan was established to give the UAE a national card scheme with the scale, acceptance, and capabilities the country’s payment needs require. Enabling Jaywan on the Visa Acceptance Platform embeds the UAE’s domestic card scheme further into the infrastructure supporting digital commerce. It expands the ability of merchants, acquirers, and payment service providers to accept Jaywan online and adds capabilities such as card-on-file and recurring payments. That takes us closer to making Jaywan a natural part of how consumers pay and businesses accept payments across the UAE."

Andrea Cianchetti, Chief Products Officer, Al Etihad Payments.

The companies involved

Al Etihad Payments (AEP) is the operator of Jaywan, the United Arab Emirates’ national domestic card scheme. Established to enhance the country’s financial sovereignty and payment infrastructure, AEP focuses on developing and operating critical systems that support the UAE's transition toward a less-cash society. The organization plays a central role in the Central Bank of the UAE’s Financial Infrastructure Transformation (FIT) program, aiming to provide cost-effective and secure payment solutions tailored to the local market requirements.

Visa is a global leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. The company operates one of the world's most advanced processing networks, VisaNet, which provides secure and reliable payments globally. In the Middle East, Visa has been a long-standing partner for financial institutions, recently focusing on expanding its Acceptance Platform to integrate local schemes and alternative payment methods. This strategy allows the firm to maintain its position as a central infrastructure provider in markets where domestic schemes are gaining significant regulatory and consumer traction.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely followed Visa’s strategic moves in the Middle East and its broader technological shifts. Recently, we covered how ADIB Launches UAE’s First 24/7 Real-Time EGP Transfers to Egypt via Visa Direct, highlighting the company’s role in cross-border remittance innovation within the region. On the global stage, Visa has been exploring the intersection of AI and retail, as seen when Visa Launches Agentic Commerce Benchmark as AI Models Fail 43% of Shopping Tests. Additionally, the firm continues to monitor consumer trends, recently providing a Visa Forecasts 4.5% Surge in 2026 U.S. Holiday Spending as Consumers Prioritize Physical Gifts.

What this means

This integration represents a significant step in the global trend of "sovereign payments," where national governments promote domestic schemes to reduce reliance on international networks for internal transactions. By hosting Jaywan on its platform, Visa is effectively pivoting from a competitor to an infrastructure provider for the UAE’s national project. This move puts pressure on other global schemes to offer similar interoperability or risk losing volume in a rapidly maturing market. For the UAE fintech sector, the availability of tokenized, recurring Jaywan payments removes a major barrier for local subscription-based startups and e-commerce platforms that previously faced higher costs associated with international card processing for domestic transactions.