7 banks in the UAE carry a CBL Score. AMINA Bank (15 of 16), Standard Chartered (8 of 16), Zand Bank (8 of 16) lead the list. 4 of the 7 open to ordinary retail customers; the rest take businesses, institutions or qualified investors.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi run on two rulebooks. VARA in Dubai licenses the brokers that power the bank apps, ADGM's FSRA in Abu Dhabi licenses the professional-client branches, and the UAE central bank licenses the banks and their dirham tokens. For a resident with an Emirates ID the question is which app lets you buy, hold and sell, and whether coins can ever leave. For a licensed VASP the question is who will open the account.
| Bank | Score | Type | Health | P2P | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMINA Bank | 15/16 | Crypto-native | Solid | none | Yes, but only for professional clients and companies. Individuals need CHF 500,000 in assets plus finance experience, or CHF 2 million. |
| Standard Chartered | 8/16 | Traditional | Watch | none | Yes for institutions, through spot trading, custody and stablecoins. Retail customers get little beyond the Mox app in Hong Kong. |
| Zand Bank | 8/16 | Business banking | Solid | none | Yes for licensed businesses and institutions, no for individuals. |
| RAKBank | 8/16 | Traditional | Solid | none | Yes. Crypto trading is built into the app, but it is a closed loop run by Bitpanda, and exchange transfer rules are not published. |
| Liv · Emirates NBD | 7/16 | Neobank | Solid | none | Yes for buying and holding crypto inside the app. Coins stay with the custodian, and there is no published route to an external wallet. |
| Wio Bank | 6/16 | Neobank | Solid | none | Yes for buying and selling crypto inside the app. No published policy on transfers to outside exchanges. |
| ruya | 6/16 | Neobank | Unknown | none | Yes for buying and selling Bitcoin inside the app, but it is a closed loop with no withdrawals to your own wallet. |
Click a column to sort. Health is our tag. P2P is community-reported and separate from the score.
By bank type
By what the bank lets you do