Banks get better terms when they negotiate together.
ArabPay Limited is the regional program manager for the Arab region within the Digital Local Currency group. We govern the Digital Local Currency Programme across the region, which lets a syndicate of banks pool their collective demand for a currency, contract directly with a single sponsor bank in the destination market, and reach that market’s retail payment infrastructure.
Three things change
Many to one, not one to one. Banks in a market assess their collective demand for a currency and approach the destination as a syndicate. Volume that would be marginal for any single bank becomes worth negotiating over, and the terms are set once for the group.
Direct, not intermediated. The syndicate contracts with the sponsor bank itself. No correspondent chain, and none of the compliance cost each additional hop carries.
Retail, not wholesale. Correspondent relationships move institutional flows. A sponsor bank shares its retail payment infrastructure, so member banks reach domestic QR schemes and instant payment rails on the same terms as a resident.
ArabPay does not contract with banks. The Programme is delivered in each country by a local program provider, established with a qualified local partner. Membership agreements are signed there. Regulated activity, custody of funds and settlement sit with the licensed banks that participate.
What local program providers deliver
Member banks expect more than access. Five capabilities sit inside every market programme, each a condition of the network working rather than an addition to it.
Cross-border regulatory and compliance advisory
Establishing the shared framework that lets two banks in two jurisdictions contract with each other directly.
Read moreLocal-currency treasury matching
Identifying and arranging the counterparty positions that let member banks hold and settle in each other’s currencies.
Read moreInstitutional training and certification
University-accredited programmes for member bank staff, delivered with an education partner.
Read moreNetwork technology assurance
Auditing core banking, switching, card and merchant systems against the throughput standards the network requires.
Read moreProgramme communications
Multilingual publication and localisation, so material developed anywhere in the network reaches each market in Arabic.
Read moreWhy the Arab region
No region in the world carries more cross-border retail payment volume, or more of it through channels that sit outside the regulated perimeter.
See the regional case in full, including national programme envelopes and the fiscal return on digital compliance.
The world’s largest remittance source
Workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council states sent an estimated $131.5 billion in 2023 , more than any other bloc, including the United States.
Expatriate majorities
In several GCC states more than 85% of residents are expatriate workers, a population served largely by cash and by informal transfer channels.
Deep regional corridors
The GCC accounts for roughly 42% of remittances into the Middle East and North Africa, and around 48% of those reaching South Asia.
Integration already under way
The Arab Monetary Fund’s work to link Arab payment systems establishes the regional appetite. The Programme addresses the compliance layer that sits above the rails.
Where ArabPay sits
A governance company, not an operator
ArabPay holds regional governance and licenses know-how downward to country program managers. It has no external clients and does not enter the funds flow.
Anchored in sovereign currency
The Programme is settled in local currency. It introduces no parallel instrument and no claim outside the domestic monetary system of any member state.
Built on existing licences
Every leg of every transaction is performed by a licensed bank under its own permissions and its own supervisor.