Insights: guides to UAE business banking, digital asset custody and stablecoins
Zand Bank Insights explains how corporate banking, digital asset custody and AED stablecoins work in the UAE, written by the Zand Bank Research Team and reviewed by Compliance before publication; start with the three guides on opening a corporate account, how AED stablecoins are backed and what the CBUAE and VARA each license.
What Insights covers and who it is for
Insights is the guides section of Zand Bank, a digital bank in the UAE that serves corporate, institutional, fintech and wealth clients. It is written for the people who make a banking decision and have to defend it afterwards: founders and finance directors opening a company account, treasury teams moving money across borders, compliance officers checking a counterparty's licence, and institutions deciding who should hold their digital assets.
Each guide answers one question in full. The first paragraph gives the answer, the sections that follow give the detail, and a sources list at the end names the rulebook, the public register or the release each statement comes from. Where Zand Bank has not published something, such as its account opening checklist, the guide says so and does not fill the gap with an estimate.
Three subjects run through the section. Business banking covers how a company opens and runs an account: the documents a bank asks for, who must be identified, how users and approval rules are set up, and what payments cost. Digital asset custody covers how an institution's virtual assets are held, which licence allows a firm to hold them and which investors it may serve. Stablecoins and payment tokens cover how a dirham token is issued, what backs it, how redemption works and which rules bind the issuer.
Regulation ties the three together. Zand Bank PJSC is licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE and holds VARA licence no. VL/2024/12/001 for Custody Services, for Institutional Investors and Qualified Investors only. Zand AED is issued by Zand Trust, a wholly owned subsidiary of Zand Bank PJSC, and not by the bank. The guides explain what each of those statements means and how to check a licence on the public register yourself.
Insights is a reference section, not a sales page. If you are new to digital banking in the UAE, read the guides in the order shown. If you already know which service you need, go to a topic below: each one links the guide to the product page, the fee tables or the legal page that holds the detail. Definitions are in the glossary and short answers to account questions are in the FAQ.
Insights is for information only. It is not investment, legal or tax advice, and nothing in it is an offer of a virtual asset or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold one.
Start here: four guides
By Zand Bank Research Team. Reviewed by Head of Compliance. Each guide lists its sources and its last update.
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What is a digital bank, and how does it differ from a traditional one?
What a digital bank is, why its licence and customer checks are the same as a branch-based bank's, and what changes for a company in cash handling and support.
Updated · 6 min read
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How to open a corporate bank account in the UAE
The steps, the documents and the ownership checks a UAE bank runs on a company, why applications stall, and how users and approvals are set up at Zand Bank.
Updated · 13 min read
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How AED stablecoins work: reserves and the peg
How a dirham stablecoin is issued, what reserves stand behind it, how the 1:1 peg and redemption work, and what the Central Bank's payment token rules ask of an issuer.
Updated · 12 min read
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VARA licence vs CBUAE banking licence
What each licence permits, who regulates stablecoins in the UAE, which investors a custody licence covers, and how to check a licence number on the public register.
Updated · 15 min read
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Business banking in the UAE
What a company needs to open an account, what the account does once it is open and what it costs to run.
- The guide to opening a corporate bank account in the UAE sets out the steps, the document file and the checks on owners and controllers.
- The explainer What is a digital bank? compares digital and branch-based banks.
- The Zand Bank business bank account page lists what the account includes: demand deposit accounts, virtual accounts, multi-currency payments and escrow.
- The fees and charges tables show corporate banking charges by category, each with the date it was last reviewed.
- The Zand Bank FAQ gives short answers on users, approval rules, transfers and term deposits.
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Digital assets and custody
How a bank holds an institution's virtual assets, under which licence and with which controls. Virtual assets can lose their value in full or in part.
- The licence guide explains what a VARA custody licence covers and what it leaves to other licences.
- The service page describes digital asset custody for institutions and qualified investors under VARA licence no. VL/2024/12/001, including how keys are held.
- The security and assurance page lists the ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications, the SOC 2 Type II attestation and how custody keys are stored in hardware security modules.
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Stablecoins and payment tokens
How a dirham token keeps its value, who issues it and what a holder can and cannot expect. Zand AED pays no interest to holders.
- The explainer How AED stablecoins work: reserves and the peg covers issuance, reserves, attestations and redemption at par.
- The Zand AED (AEDZ) product page names the issuer, Zand Trust, and shows the dated reserve figures, the networks and the redemption route.
- The risk disclosure for virtual assets and stablecoins says what can go wrong and what is not protected.
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Regulation and licences
Which authority licenses which activity, and where to check each statement the bank makes about itself.
- The guide to who regulates banks, custodians and stablecoin issuers in the UAE compares the two licences side by side.
- The licences and regulatory disclosures page goes entity by entity, with the register entry for each licence that has one.
- Shareholders, the board and key dates are on the page about the bank behind Insights.
Coming: The UAE Payment Token Services Regulation explained. Is crypto legal in the UAE? Regulators, licences and what is allowed.
Key terms
Eight terms the guides rely on. Each link opens the definition in the full glossary of terms, which holds 29 entries in five groups.
Who writes and reviews Insights
Insights is prepared by the Zand Bank Research Team and reviewed by the Head of Compliance before publication. Both are shown here as roles: the names, credentials and profile pages of the authors and the reviewer are to be added before this section is published.
Statements about a rule are checked against the regulation they cite, and facts about Zand Bank come from its own pages, its releases and the public registers. The editorial policy sets out how Insights is written and reviewed, how corrections are made and how AI-assisted drafting is checked by a person.
If you find an error or want a topic covered, contact the team. Insights is published by Zand Bank, the UAE digital bank for corporate and institutional clients.
- Written by
- Zand Bank Research Team
- Reviewed by
- Head of Compliance
- Sources
- Regulator rulebooks, public registers, Zand Bank pages and releases
- Guides published
- 4
- Last updated
Start with the account opening guide
The steps, the documents and the checks a UAE bank runs on a company, in one guide.