Payment Disruptions Hit Saudi-UAE Financial Corridor

Bank transfers and electronic payments from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates are in some cases being blocked, while those going through other corridors are operating as usual, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (July 7), citing unnamed sources.

Both businesses and individuals have encountered these problems over the last several weeks, although it’s uncertain how widespread the problems are, according to the report.

Saudi Arabia’s central bank told Bloomberg, per the report: “There are no direct restrictions on specific countries; banks apply risk-based measures consistently across all transactions to safeguard the integrity of the financial system.”

The central bank did not say if there had been an increase in delays on bank transfers or electronic payments, according to the report.

A UAE official told Bloomberg that the country’s ministry of economy and tourism hadn’t received reports from private companies about any such delays, according to the report.

“The UAE and Saudi Arabia maintain deep and longstanding economic and commercial ties, supported by significant trade and investment flows between the two countries,” the UAE official said, per the report.

While the two countries have a growing volume of trade with each other and share a regional payment infrastructure, their relationship has also been strained, according to the report.

They are competing to become the primary regional hub for industries such as finance and artificial intelligence; they disagree on military operations in Yemen; and the UAE said it will leave OPEC, an organization that is essentially led by Saudi Arabia, per the report.

Reuters reported Monday (July 6) that UAE lender Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank said that some of its banking services had been disrupted by technological problems over the past week but that it had resolved those problems.

The lender said payments and transfers through its mobile app had been affected, and that the disruptions affected only its retail customers, according to the report.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank is owned by the Abu Dhabi government through the sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company, per the report.

PYMNTS reported in June 2025 that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are racing to become the main AI tech hub in the Middle East and that they are spending and attracting veritable fortunes for their ambitions.