Shoppers in the UAE are paying with more than cards, according to retail industry executives. A significant volume of payments now goes through telco wallets. Paul Carey, executive vice-president for cards, payments and fintech at Al-Futtaim, said the payments landscape ‘shifted massively’ in five years.
Cards are still the main way to pay, but other options are growing fast. Buy now, Pay Later (BNPL), local debit cards, wallets and stablecoins are now part of the mix. Al-Futtaim also named Juspay as its payment partner across all its brands and markets.
Carey said that the payments were once a choice between cash and cards. Today, BNPL is everywhere, and open finance allows direct bank-to-bank payments. Central banks are also pushing to modernise payments. The UAE has launched Jaywan, its local debit card, and instant payment options are emerging.
Between 30 and 50% of spending across Al-Futtaim's businesses is now online, and the share differs by business. Crypto and stablecoins are also starting to appear, Carey added. Nakul Kothari, Juspay's head of Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, said growth in cross-border commerce makes things more complex for merchants.
Also read: UAE Emerges as a Global Hub for Stablecoin Payments and Digital Finance
A study by Nium and Celent shows the shift may speed up. Middle East banks expect stablecoins to make up 10.4% of outgoing cross-border business payments by 2035, up from 1.6% in 2025.
Tokenised bank deposits may rise from 1.2 to 6.2%, and central bank digital currencies from 0.6 to 4.1%. Together, these new forms of money could reach 20.7%, compared with 3.4% in 2025. Banks expect SWIFT's share to fall from 77.2% to 55%.