UAE’s Jaywan cards set for use across 183 countries under UnionPay deal

New UnionPay deal will expand international use of the UAE’s domestic payment card

Last updated: August 12, 2026 | 14:23

Nivetha Dayanand, Assistant Business Editor

2 MIN READ

Jaywan

Dubai: UAE cardholders will be able to use Jaywan mono-badged cards at more than 100 million points of sale and 1.8 million ATMs across more than 183 countries and regions under a new agreement between Al Etihad Payments and UnionPay International.

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The agreement will expand the international acceptance of Jaywan, the UAE’s domestic card scheme, through UnionPay’s global network.

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Transactions conducted outside the UAE will be routed by UnionPay to the UAE National Switch, which is operated by Al Etihad Payments.

Global use expands

Al Etihad Payments, the owner and operator of the national switch and Jaywan domestic card scheme, signed the Memorandum of Understanding with UnionPay International at the company’s headquarters in Shanghai.

Saif Humaid Al Dhaheri, Chairman of Al Etihad Payments, and Dong Junfeng, Chairman of China UnionPay and UnionPay International, signed the agreement.

Al Dhaheri said the MoU represents an important step in supporting the global expansion of Jaywan and improving the efficiency of cross-border payments, while also facilitating trade, tourism and economic cooperation.

The collaboration also expands opportunities for the international use of Jaywan cards and strengthens the scheme’s position among global payment schemes.

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Settlement arrangements to follow

A separate MoU will govern settlement arrangements, including settlement, liquidity and foreign exchange services, supporting the international expansion of Jaywan.

Junfeng said growing ties between China and the UAE are increasing demand for seamless cross-border payment services in trade and tourism.

"Building on the MoU on cross-border payments signed by the two central banks in 2025, these agreements will strengthen the global competitiveness and operational resilience of the UAE's domestic payment brand. Furthermore, this partnership will significantly improve local currency settlement efficiency and support bilateral trade ties," he said.

Existing partnership expands

The latest agreement builds on the existing partnership between Al Etihad Payments and UnionPay covering the issuance of co-badged Jaywan-UnionPay cards by financial institutions in the UAE.

Under that arrangement, domestic transactions are processed through the Jaywan scheme, while international transactions are processed through the UnionPay International network.

Nivetha DayanandAssistant Business Editor

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.

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