Dubai FinTech Summit: CBUAE Launches Digital Dirham

Dubai is on the brink of a major financial transformation with the launch of the Digital Dirham — a move that solidifies the UAE’s ambition to become a global fintech leader.

The announcement came during the Dubai FinTech Summit 2025, where Paul Kayrouz, Chief Fintech Officer at the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE), outlined the bank’s ambitious plans to position the UAE as a leader in the digital economy.

“In line with the UAE 2031 Vision and the UAE National Digital Strategy, we aspire to become one of the top central banks and a top 5 fintech hub globally,” said Kayrouz.

We have changed our role from a traditional regulator to an ecosystem manager. This is how we're positioning the UAE as a leader in a digital economy.

A New Era: Digital Dirham

The Digital Dirham is set to be more than just a digital currency; it’s envisioned as a secure, efficient, and technologically advanced alternative to cash, utilizing blockchain technology to ensure risk management, data protection, and streamlined transactions. The central bank plans to go live with the retail digital currency by the end of this year.

Kayrouz highlighted one particularly promising application — tourism. With the Digital Dirham, visitors can skip the hassle of exchanging cash. As he explained:

Tourists come to the UAE, they don't have to bring cash with them. They just download the app, the digital currency app, which will be provided by the way for free. Then they can top it up with any bank account, or any card they have, and then use the digital dirham for any payments in the UAE. And then on their way out, they can easily redeem or exchange the digital dirham for whatever foreign currency they want, back into their home country.

More Than Just a Tourist Tool

The Digital Dirham aims to become an essential financial instrument for everyone, not just visitors. Its features will include:

Financial Inclusion: A digital wallet with P2P payments and smart contract functionality.
Social Payments: Government-programmable payments to ensure control and transparency.
Parent-Child Sub-Wallets: Parents can set spending limits for their children, fostering financial literacy.
Fractional Ownership: Tokenization to facilitate shared ownership of assets like real estate.

The CBUAE has also developed a secure platform for issuing, circulating, and using the Digital Dirham, including a dedicated Digital Dirham wallet for retail, wholesale, and cross-border transactions. This integrated system is designed to make the currency accessible and manageable for both individuals and businesses.

Connecting Fintech Ecosystems

The CBUAE’s vision for digital finance doesn’t stop at national borders. One of the standout projects presented at the summit was Project Aperta, aimed at creating digital corridors by connecting the UAE’s Open Finance platform with global counterparts. This project, led by the Bank of International Settlements, the CBUAE, and other major financial institutions, will give UAE-licensed fintech companies access to new markets, including Brazil, the UK, and Hong Kong.

We want to connect our open finance platform with other open finance, open banking platforms across the globe. More importantly, we want to help UAE-licensed fintechs to have access to these different countries by getting access to the Aperta program. — Paul Kayrouz

Another key initiative is mBridge, a platform designed to facilitate cross-border transactions using central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The platform, developed through a collaboration between the CBUAE, the Bank of Thailand, the People’s Bank of China, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, has already processed around $7 billion in transactions. This milestone highlights the potential for mBridge to revolutionize international payments by offering a streamlined, secure framework for real-time settlement.

These projects collectively represent the UAE’s commitment to transforming its financial landscape while positioning itself as a global leader in fintech innovation.

As Kayrouz aptly concluded: