UAE Central Bank SVF Regulations

On 30th September 2020, the Central Bank of UAE issued a new Stored Value Facilities Regulation (the “ SVF Regulation”) to support the development of digital payment services in the UAE. The SVF Regulation was designed to facilitate access to the UAE market for SVF providers, Payment Service Providers (PSPs), and FinTech Firms whilst continuing to protect customer interests, ensuring proper business practices and supporting the development of payment products and services in the UAE.

There are few sections under the SVF Regulation that prescribes the data protection requirements for the SVF licensees. The SVF Regulation requires that an SVF licensee must adequately protect customers’ data which are required to be stored and maintained in the UAE. It also prescribes that an SVF licensee must store and retain all customer and transaction data for a period of five years from the date of the creation of the customer data, or longer if required by other laws.

Furthermore, the SVF licensees must also have adequate policies, procedures and measures in place to protect their information and accounting systems, databases, and other records and documents from unauthorized access, unauthorized retrieval, tampering and misuse.