What is Open Finance in the UAE? CBUAE Rules Explained (2026)

Open Finance in the UAE is a Central Bank framework that lets you securely share your financial data with licensed third party apps, and let those apps initiate payments from your bank account, only after you give explicit consent. It is governed by the CBUAE Open Finance Regulation, updated by Circular No. 3 of 2025, runs on infrastructure operated by Nebras Open Finance, and reaches consumers under the Al Tareq brand. Here is what that actually means for your money.

What does Open Finance mean in practice?

Until recently, your salary account, your credit card, your car insurance policy and your investment app each lived in a separate silo. The only way an app could show all of them together was screen scraping (you handing over your online banking password, which is risky and against most banks' terms) or manual uploads of statements.

Open Finance replaces that with regulated APIs (secure data connections). With your permission, a licensed app can:

Read your account balances and transaction history across banks (data sharing, sometimes called account information services).
Start a payment directly from your bank account without you logging into the bank's own app (service initiation, which includes payment initiation).
Pull product information (rates, fees) so you can compare and switch more easily.

The key word is permission. Nothing moves without your explicit, informed consent, and that consent is recorded, time-limited and revocable.

Which regulation governs Open Finance in the UAE?

The CBUAE issued its original Open Finance Regulation as Circular No. 7 of 2023, then replaced and updated it with Circular No. 3 of 2025, which took effect on 10 July 2025. Two points matter for consumers:

Participation is mandatory for licensed financial institutions. Banks, finance companies, payment providers, exchange houses and insurers licensed by the CBUAE must open access to customer data and payment rails through the central infrastructure when their wave comes up. They cannot opt out.
Third party providers must be licensed. Any app that wants to access your data or initiate payments needs CBUAE approval to provide Data Sharing services, Service Initiation services, or both.

The regulation applies to mainland UAE institutions. The DIFC and ADGM financial free zones have their own regulators (DFSA and FSRA), so firms based only there sit outside this specific framework, though many serve UAE customers under their own rules.

The regulation also sets hard protections: your data cannot be re-shared onwards or sold, consent must be explicit and specific, and there is a liability model so that if something goes wrong inside the regulated ecosystem, there is a clear path to compensation.

What are Al Tareq and Nebras?

Two names come up constantly, and they do different jobs.

Component	What it is	What it does for you
Open Finance Regulation (Circular 03/2025)	The CBUAE rulebook	Sets the rights, duties and licensing rules
Nebras Open Finance	The operating entity behind the central platform, established with CBUAE backing in 2024	Runs the API hub, trust framework and participant directory that banks and apps connect through
Al Tareq	The consumer-facing brand and consent framework	Standardises how you approve, view and cancel data-sharing and payment consents, including a dedicated consent app
Third party providers (TPPs)	Licensed fintechs and apps	The services you actually use: aggregation, budgeting, payment initiation

When you connect a bank account inside a licensed app, you will see the Al Tareq name and a standardised journey: the app requests access, you are handed off to your bank (or the Al Tareq consent app) to authenticate, you approve a specific list of data or a specific payment, and you are returned to the app. No passwords are ever shared with the app.

Which banks are live, and what are the waves?

Rollout is phased. The CBUAE sequenced banks into waves, starting with the largest retail banks, with the rest of the sector following through 2026. Key verified milestones as of mid-2026:

December 2025: Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) became the first UAE bank to fully activate Open Finance for live use under Al Tareq, working with licensed third party providers Pay10 and Lean Technologies.
April 2026: ADIB announced it was licensed to operate as an Open Finance provider, and digital banks such as Wio have enabled Open Finance services.
Through 2026: remaining banks and other licensed institutions (finance companies, insurers, exchange houses) continue onboarding in waves, with insurance data and quotations following banking data.

Coverage changes month by month. Himma maintains a live Open Finance tracker showing which UAE banks are connected, in which wave, and what each bank's APIs currently support (balances, transactions, payment initiation).

What can you actually do with Open Finance today?

A worked example. Say you are an expat earning AED 25,000 per month with a salary account at one bank, a credit card at a second, and an old account at a third that still has AED 9,400 sitting in it.

Before Open Finance, seeing your true position meant logging into three apps and building a spreadsheet. With Open Finance consents in place, a licensed personal finance (PFM) app can show all three balances and every transaction in one view, calculate that you spent AED 4,150 on food delivery and groceries last month, and flag that the AED 9,400 is earning 0% while savings accounts elsewhere pay meaningfully more. As payment initiation spreads, the same app could move money between your own accounts with one approval instead of an IBAN transfer form.

That is the practical promise: less admin, fewer blind spots, easier switching. How apps handle your data in that process is covered in detail in how PFM apps use your bank data, and the year-by-year consumer impact in what Open Finance changes for you in 2026.

Is Open Finance safe?

The framework was designed around consent and licensing precisely because the alternative (password sharing and screen scraping) was not safe. The protections:

Explicit consent only, for a defined scope and duration, capped at 12 months before it must be renewed.
Bank-side authentication. You approve access inside your own bank's app or the Al Tareq consent app, with multi-factor authentication. The third party never sees your banking password.
Read-only by default. Data sharing consents cannot move money. Payment initiation is a separate consent, approved per payment or per defined mandate.
No selling or re-sharing of your data, by regulation.
Revocation at any time, through the app, your bank, or the Al Tareq consent app, after which the provider must delete data it has no legal duty to retain.

The residual risk sits mostly outside the system: fake apps impersonating licensed ones. Checking a licence before connecting anything is covered in are money apps safe in the UAE?.

FAQ

Is Open Finance the same as open banking?

Open banking usually covers bank accounts and payments only. The UAE went wider from day one: the framework is designed to cover banking, then insurance, FX and other products, which is why it is called Open Finance. Banking data and payments came first; insurance data and quotations follow in later phases.

Do I have to use Open Finance?

No. It is mandatory for banks to offer the connections, but entirely optional for you. If you never grant a consent, nothing about your banking changes. Instant payments through Aani also work independently of Open Finance consents.

Can a connected app take money from my account?

Not under a data-sharing consent, which is read-only. Moving money requires a separate service initiation consent, and each payment or mandate is authenticated with your bank. The split is explained in how PFM apps use your bank data.

Which banks support Open Finance right now?

CBD was first to go fully live (December 2025), with ADIB, Wio and others following in 2026 and the remaining institutions onboarding in waves. Check the current list in the Open Finance tracker because coverage is expanding continuously.

Does Open Finance cost me anything?

No. Institutions and providers pay ecosystem fees; there is no regulator-mandated consumer charge for granting or managing consents. Individual apps may charge subscriptions for their own features, which is a commercial choice, not an Open Finance fee.

Sources and References

Central Bank of the UAE, Open Finance Regulation and Open Finance programme pages; framework scope, consent principles and mandatory participation (centralbank.ae, rulebook.centralbank.ae)
Pinsent Masons legal analysis of the UAE Open Finance framework; Circular No. 3 of 2025 effective 10 July 2025, licensing categories, prohibition on selling or re-sharing customer data (pinsentmasons.com)
Commercial Bank of Dubai, AlTareq Open Finance customer pages; consent journey, 12-month consent cap, data categories, revocation and deletion rules (cbd.ae)
Commercial Bank of Dubai press release, December 2025; first UAE bank fully live under the AlTareq initiative with Pay10 and Lean Technologies (cbd.ae)
Nebras Open Finance ecosystem documentation; ADIB licensed as an Open Finance provider (April 2026), Wio enablement, hub and trust framework role (nebras-open-finance.com)
WhiteSight research on UAE Open Finance; Nebras establishment in 2024 and AlTareq branding rollout (whitesight.net)

This article is for general information and does not constitute financial advice. Open Finance rules, bank participation and rollout timelines change frequently, so always confirm the current position with the CBUAE and your own bank before acting on it.

Published on 9 September 2026.