Pemo, the UAE’s leading all-in-one spend management platform built for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), recently announced that it has received in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) for a Stored Value Facilities (SVF) licence.
Industry sources added that this approval will let the company hold and manage business funds digitally on its customers’ behalf once the licensing process is complete. Pemo is among the first spend management platforms in the UAE to receive SVF in-principle approval and expects to complete the licensing process in the coming months.
Industry sources further confirmed that this milestone paves the way for Pemo to introduce a broader suite of financial products beyond its existing spend management platform, including digital wallets and new fund-holding capabilities built for the day-to-day needs of UAE SMEs.
What Is a Stored Value Facility (SVF)?ย An SVF licence, regulated by the CBUAE, allows a licensed entity to hold customer funds in digital wallet-style accounts, letting businesses load, hold and spend money digitally without routing every transaction through a traditional bank account. For Pemo’s SME customers, that means faster, more direct access to the funds already in their account, more flexible corporate card funding, and greater day-to-day control over company cash, all inside a single platform.
Pemo was built in the UAE, for UAE SMEs, and understands first-hand the everyday pressures facing companies and the people who work for them. This in-principal approval reflects that same commitment, supporting the country’s broader ambitions around digital transformation, innovation and financial inclusion, and giving business owners and their teams more direct, transparent access to the financial tools they rely on every day. It also marks a first step in Pemo’s evolution from a spend management platform into a broader financial services provider for UAE SMEs.
Why This Mattersย For too long, small businesses have struggled to get fast, reliable access to their own cash. SMEs make up around 90% of the UAE’s operating companies and drive more than 60% of non-oil GDP. Yet they receive only around 10% of total bank funding. That gap leaves many businesses reliant on slow, traditional banking rails just to manage day-to-day cash flow. Cash flow, not lack of revenue, is what keeps many small business owners up at night. By holding and moving stored value on its own regulated infrastructure, Pemo will cut the delays businesses face when moving their own funds – loading, spending and paying from one place, without waiting on traditional transfer windows.
