The Gulf Cooperation Council's largest economies are simultaneously expanding their domestic payment infrastructure while building cross-border links through the AFAQ regional settlement system. Dubai's target of 90 percent cashless transactions by 2026, Saudi Arabia's achievement of 79 percent non-cash retail payments by early 2025, and Qatar's Third Financial Sector Strategy represent coordinated but independent efforts that are reshaping how value moves across the region.
The UAE has established itself as the Gulf's most ambitious digital payment adopter. Aani, the country's instant payment platform launched by Al Etihad Payments in October 2023, has reached 57 financial institutions, over 1.5 million end customers representing more than 10 percent of the UAE's population, and over 100,000 merchants. The platform enables account-to-account transfers and is evolving to support QR-based merchant payments. Aani is being positioned for cross-border expansion through the IRP Gateway, with India's UPI as the first international corridor. The UAEFTS, the UAE's high-value RTGS system, processed transactions worth AED 19.9 trillion in 2024, with AED 1.878 trillion flowing through in December alone. In the first five months of 2025, AED 9.528 trillion were dispatched through UAEFTS, indicating continued growth in wholesale settlement volumes.
Dubai's Cashless Strategy aims to make 90 percent of all transactions digital by 2026, a target that officials estimate would add AED 8 billion annually to the economy. The Network International-Magnati merger has created a regional payments processing entity positioned to capture growth from this cashless transition.
Saudi Arabia's payment transformation has been driven by SAMA's systematic approach through SARIE, the instant payment system launched in April 2021. The platform processed 593 million instant payment transactions in 2024, marking a 50 percent compound annual growth rate over three years from launch. Transaction value reached SAR 2.5 trillion in 2024, with a 42 percent annual increase in processed transfers demonstrating accelerating adoption. SARIE supports person-to-person, person-to-business, and business-to-business payments around the clock and is integrated with all banks operating in Saudi Arabia.
The broader Saudi digital payments ecosystem has surpassed Vision 2030's interim targets ahead of schedule. Non-cash retail transactions reached 79 percent by early 2025, comfortably above the 70 percent interim goal. The Saudi digital payments market reached 1.3 billion dollars in 2025 and is projected to grow at a 13.6 percent compound annual rate through 2034, reflecting the structural shift from cash to electronic settlement across the kingdom.
Qatar's payment modernization has taken a different path, focusing on upgrading core settlement infrastructure. In December 2025, the Qatar Central Bank activated Qatari Riyal and foreign currency transfer services through the upgraded QA-RTGS system, enabling both domestic and international currency transactions to be processed and settled locally with enhanced security and efficiency. The upgraded system complies with ISO 20022 messaging standards and was built as a successor to the previous RTGS platform that had operated since 2004. The initiative is part of the QCB's Third Financial Sector Strategy, targeting comprehensive modernization in line with Qatar National Vision 2030.
The AFAQ system, operated by the Gulf Payments Company, provides the cross-border layer connecting these domestic infrastructures. The system now links approximately 180 financial institutions across all six GCC member states, enabling same-day settlement in local currencies with minimal fees. Cross-currency AFAQ went live between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in December 2021, with Kuwait joining in March 2022 and the UAE in December 2023. The National Bank of Oman was onboarded in February 2026, further expanding the network. A second service phase planned under AFAQ will support single-currency payments and eventually cross-border multilateral net clearing of orders submitted by regional clearing systems.
The convergence of these three payment ecosystems reflects distinct national strategies pursuing a common outcome. The UAE prioritizes merchant adoption and cross-border interoperability. Saudi Arabia emphasizes volume-driven instant payment adoption aligned with economic diversification. Qatar focuses on infrastructure-level modernization and standards compliance. Together, their trajectories are building the most advanced real-time payment cluster in the MENA region, with AFAQ providing the cross-border settlement fabric that connects them.