The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) has initiated the Financial Infrastructure Transformation (FIT) program to push the digital transformation across the country’s financial services sector.
The CBUAE opined that the FIT project consists of nine important efforts to increase the UAE’s competitiveness as it strives to become a financial and digital payment center. The programme is scheduled to achieve full integration by 2026.
In the first stage, the central bank plans to develop a card payment platform to help the country’s e-commerce and digital transactions grow, as well as an instant payments platform, an innovation hub, and a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for domestic and cross-border use. According to the central bank, these measures will promote financial inclusion, payment innovation, leverage security and efficiency, and aid in the transition to a cashless society.
As part of the FIT initiative, the CBUAE will make its digital leadership more robust by putting into use more firm supervisory processes as well as data management solutions so as to maintain financial stability.
The second stage of the programme will entail the creation of a financial cloud infrastructure as well as eKYC and open finance platforms in order to increase regulatory compliance, save operational costs, improve the user experience, and also improve security.
The governor of the CBUAE, His Excellency Khaled Mohamed Balama, said of the FIT initiative that it symbolises the path and objectives of their enlightened leadership towards digitising the economy and also strengthening the financial sector.
He added that they will collaborate with their partners to carry out the programme, fulfil the objectives, quicken the use of digital services in the financial sector, and recruit the best talent that is available.