Visa has added support for the UAE's domestic card scheme, Jaywan, to the Visa Acceptance Platform. Merchants, acquirers, and payment service providers using the platform in the UAE can now accept eligible Jaywan debit, credit, and prepaid cards for online transactions. Jaywan is operated by Al Etihad Payments, a subsidiary of the Central Bank of the UAE.
Card-on-file and recurring payments
The Visa Acceptance Platform combines payment acceptance, authentication, and tokenisation in a single platform, supporting use cases such as card-on-file payments, recurring transactions, and digital wallets. With the integration, the platform will support Jaywan card-on-file network tokenisation through Visa's Token Management Service (TMS), helping merchants and payment providers handle recurring payments and subscriptions with Jaywan cards.
Andrea Cianchetti, Chief Products Officer at Al Etihad Payments, said enabling Jaywan on the Visa Acceptance Platform materially increases online acceptance of Jaywan cards in the UAE. He added that Jaywan was established to give the country a national card scheme with the scale, acceptance, and capabilities it needs, and that the integration adds card-on-file and recurring payment capabilities for merchants and payment providers.
Building on the Jaywan-Visa partnership
In March 2025, Al Etihad Payments signed co-badging agreements with international card schemes, including Visa, to introduce Jaywan-Visa debit and prepaid cards that can be used internationally. The latest integration extends that cooperation to online acceptance of Jaywan cards within the UAE. Other providers are also adding the scheme, with Checkout.com adding Jaywan acceptance for merchants in the UAE.
Fadi Moukaddem, Regional General Manager for the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar at Visa, said the company is building on its collaboration with Al Etihad Payments by making Jaywan available on the Visa Acceptance Platform. He added that enabling participating merchants, acquirers, and payment service providers to support Jaywan through the platform expands payment choice for consumers and businesses in the UAE.
