Ant International has received a Category II retail payment services and card schemes licence and a stored value facilities licence from the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates. The first allows Antom to offer merchant acquiring in the country. The second lets WorldFirst provide cross-border financial services. No launch date has been announced, and Alipay+ continues to run through local banks.

What it means: The Emirates are becoming a payments hub between Asia, the Middle East and Europe, and the large global providers are gathering licences there to serve merchants directly. Ant International, the company behind Alipay+, can now sign merchants itself rather than working only through local banks. That means more competition on acceptance fees for cards and wallets and easier service for tourists from Asia. For Greece the story matters in two ways. First, tourism from China and wider Asia is growing, and accepting digital wallets such as Alipay is becoming important for hotels, shops and restaurants. Second, Greek exporters and shipping firms active in the Gulf will have more options for cross-border payments. For Greek fintechs, the example shows that international growth depends on steadily collecting local licences, which takes time: Ant needed about 14 months after in-principle approval. A European licence passported across the EU remains an advantage, but outside the EU every market is a separate project. Greek hotels and retailers that see many Asian visitors should ask their acquirers which wallets they can accept today and what the fees look like.

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