Joining me in the studio is Arnaud Wenger, Group Chief Compliance Officer at Tazapay. Arnaud, welcome to Wall Street to Mena.
Thank you very much.
Tazapay has just closed a Series B extension with Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and CMT Digital. What does this funding change for your compliance and licensing roadmap specifically?
First, this is an incredible vote of trust from our investors in our vision and our founders' vision. The new round is really helping us accelerate international expansion — and alongside that, to strengthen our regulatory controls, our compliance framework and programme, and our innovation and technology programme. All of this together will help us enter new markets with the trust regulators are looking for, while building infrastructure that is stable and trustworthy for all customers.
You have an active license application here in the UAE. Where does that stand right now?
It is developing, and we never know exactly how the process will unfold. But this is a very important market for us. Dubai and the UAE more broadly are building a unique system for financial innovation — one that combines a strong regulatory vision with strong implementation and close collaboration with industry. Working together with the UAE regulatory environment, we will be able to develop our hub here, meeting the regulatory requirements while also growing with the financial market.
How would you describe the process of getting licensed here?
Many people assume that having an established global process makes multi-jurisdiction licensing straightforward. In reality, every regulator wants the same core things — develop the local economy, ensure security for customers, enable payments, and ensure that the players coming in have strong governance. The nuances differ, but the fundamentals are the same everywhere.
What is the biggest hurdle when it comes to getting a payment license approved in a new market?
The difficulty is ensuring that we can adapt our global model to jurisdictions that operate differently from country to country. But as I mentioned, everyone wants the same things fundamentally — security and safety for customers. We don't see it as a hurdle so much as a model. We know where we want to go, we know our product, and we adapt it for each region.
How does Dubai's regulatory framework compare to other financial centres — Singapore, for example?
Dubai sits precisely between Europe and Asia — it's the bridge between Africa, Europe, and Asia. The approach the UAE is taking draws from what is happening in both Europe and Asia, and shows that everything can work together. That's why I believe the UAE has a clear regulatory vision — it has global experience from both directions and works very closely with industry to build that. For us, that clarity makes it much easier to know where we are going.
What makes one jurisdiction's licensing process harder to crack than another?
Each jurisdiction has its own view, its own approach to the financial industry, its own risk profile. The difficulty is understanding those differences. But the starting point has to be your product — once you understand exactly what you are providing, you can assess each jurisdiction and build your programme around it. You cannot copy and paste your model everywhere. You have to adapt to the local process.
Tazapay is building the bridge for stablecoin to fiat settlement. From a compliance standpoint, what has to be true before a stablecoin payment earns the same trust as a bank transfer?
Trust goes beyond the technology itself. Technology enables the payment. What customers need is confidence that the company is secure, transparent, and accountable. That is what traditional banks have built over many years. New finance is building it a different way and at a faster pace. But the technology is just the mechanism — trust is what enables adoption.
For a business in this region moving money across borders today, what is the single biggest compliance bottleneck?
Regulatory fragmentation. It is sometimes very difficult to know where you stand and what each regulator expects. We are fortunate to have FATF providing certain global guidelines, but every country has its own interpretation — and we saw that very clearly with crypto and stablecoins, particularly around the Travel Rule. That fragmentation is the bottleneck, and navigating it from a compliance perspective is the constant challenge.
If you had one piece of advice for a fintech founder in this region trying to get licensed and stay compliant, what would it be?
Build your compliance programme and advisory framework first. Many founders see compliance as a cost — and yes, at the beginning it is a cost. But when you have compliance embedded from day one, regulators trust you, banking partners trust you, and everyone trusts you. That is why we lead with compliance. If you have it from the beginning, the rest of the journey is easier. For payment companies, you need to work with regulators and bank partners. Without that, even a license means nothing. It all comes back to trust.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you very much. It's a pleasure.
