What is a Licensed Financial Institution?
The plain-language version — and a pointer to the operator's integration guide.
A Licensed Financial Institution (LFI) — a bank or insurer regulated by the CBUAE — is the data and payment holder in UAE Open Finance. Under Al Tareq, LFIs expose standardised, consent-gated APIs so that customers can share their data with, or initiate payments through, the third parties they choose. The LFI's job is to publish those APIs securely (FAPI), honour consent, and stay available.
Going live means connecting through the central API Hub, passing certification, and appearing in the trust-framework directory. Today 11 of 26 registered institutions are live in production — you can track the rollout release by release in the Observatory and the weekly Ecosystem Watch.