Fuze Secures License to Provide Card Payment Services in the UAE
Apr 27, 2025
Fuze, a UAE-based fintech which provides financial infrastructure for business, has secured a Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes (RPSCS) license from the Central Bank of the UAE.
With this new license, Fuze can offer card payment services to businesses across the UAE, allowing them to accept payments, settle transactions, and manage payouts.
Since its launch in 2023 following a $4 million seed round, Fuze's has offered crypto-as-a-service products to banks, fintechs, and other platforms across the MENA region, Turkiye, and South Asia. Using Fuze's APIs, businesses can embed crypto trading, loyalty programs, custody, and lending into their apps without the need to manage liquidity, compliance, or security themselves. Fuze also offers an OTC desk for large crypto trades, providing businesses with access to over 100 tokens, 24/7 trading, and real-time settlements.
The new RPSCS license allows Fuse to expand into traditional payments too. This will enable businesses to accept card payments and access tools, such as virtual IBANs, AI-based fraud detection, and real-time settlements, positioning Fuze as a one-stop infrastructure provider.
Fuze's expansion aligns with the UAE's national Digital Economy strategy, which aims to double the country's digital economy contribution to GDP to 19.4% by 2032.
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Egypt Independent
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- Egypt Independent
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Kirill Braga/Reuters 'I do think that there is a lot of opportunity for the US and even the EU to increase our trade with countries like Canada and get the products that we need from them,' Donovan added. 'That's where the trade wars and the negotiations over tariffs are really throwing things for a loop and are reducing our ability to be strategic in how we're approaching the Russia problem.' As Trump prepares to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska Friday, a top US official warned that India could see more tariffs coming their way if the talks don't go well. 'We've put secondary tariffs on the Indians for buying Russian oil. And I can see if things don't go well, then sanctions or secondary tariffs could go up,' US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Bloomberg. These are the areas where economic ties with Russia remain the strongest, for the US and Europe respectively. 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Vincent West/Reuters European trade with Russia: • Oil: Russia was the largest supplier of petroleum to the European Union prior to Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The EU has since imposed a ban on maritime Russian oil imports, as well as refined oil products, like diesel. As a result, oil imports to Europe fell to $1.72 billion (1.48 billion euros) for the first quarter of 2025, down from $16.4 billion (14.06 billion euros) in the same quarter of 2021, according to the most recent data from Eurostat. The top European importers of Russian fossil fuels in July 2025 were Hungary, France, Slovakia, Belgium and Spain, according to an analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, an international research organization. Hungary and Slovakia accounted for the vast majority of crude oil imports, according to the analysis, while the others import mostly liquefied natural gas. • Natural gas: The value of natural gas imports from Russia actually increased in the last four years as a result of price increases, growing to $5.23 billion (4.49 billion euros) in the first quarter of 2025, Eurostat data shows. However, the EU has slightly reduced Russia's market share of liquefied natural gas imports since 2021 – from 22% down to 19% in 2025 – while also greatly increasing the US market share. • Iron and steel: Russia's share of iron and steel imports in the EU has dropped sharply. Iron and steel imports amounted to $850 million (730 million euros) in the first quarter of 2025 – about half of what they were in the same quarter in 2021, according to Eurostat. • Fertilizer: Sanctions and import duties have not hit the fertilizer industry, and as a result, European imports of Russian fertilizer have changed very little since 2021. In the first quarter of 2025, EU countries imported $640 million (550 million euros) of Russian fertilizer, data shows. • Nickel: The EU has diversified imports to rely more on nickel from the United States, Norway, the United Kingdom and Canada. Still, the bloc imported $300 million (260 million euros) worth of nickel from Russia in the first quarter of 2025. Nickel is primarily used to make stainless steel and other alloy steels, as well as batteries. A view inside a plant at Russia's Nornickel company, the world's leading nickel and palladium producer, is seen in August 2021 in the Arctic city of Norilsk. Tatyana Makeyeva/Reuters Hundreds of Western firms still in Russia Beyond imports and exports of commodities, many Western companies remain entrenched in Russia. Some notable American-based holdouts continue to operate in Russia, including top 100 companies, according to lists compiled by the Yale School of Management and the Kyiv School of Economics Institute. Dozens of European businesses, including consumer-facing brands, retailers and software companies, have also remained in Russia. The amount of tax revenue that Western companies generate for the Kremlin is relatively small, but analysts say the companies that remain have allowed aspects of normal life to continue for the Russian population. Corporate exits serve to bring the war closer to the Russian people and confront their 'complacency,' as well as make it more difficult for Putin to paint a picture of a well-functioning economy, said Yale School of Management's Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, whose large team of researchers keeps track of which companies have left. 'It's an imploding market – it was never an economic superpower to start with – which is just a lot of smoke and mirrors, a lot of bravado on the part of Putin to try to create an aura of something bigger,' Sonnenfeld told CNN. India's and China's energy imports In contrast to the reduction in trade with Moscow seen in the United States and EU, India imported $67 billion worth of goods from Russia in 2024, according to data aggregated by the United Nations. Roughly $53 billion worth of that was petroleum oils and crude oil. Before the full-scale war, in 2021, India imported $8.7 billion worth of goods from Russia. 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a day ago
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