Majid Al Futtaim among first companies to enable Jaywan acceptance as it goes live across UAE destinations
Majid Al Futtaim, a shopping mall, communities, retail, and leisure specialist across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, has announced Jaywan card acceptance across more than 200 destinations in the UAE, becoming one of the country's first companies to fully enable the national card acceptance throughout its physical network.
Customers can now use Jaywan cards across the group’s retail, leisure, hotels, and entertainment destinations. The initiative supports the country's ambition to build a nationally owned and operated payments network while delivering a secure, efficient, and locally relevant experience for consumers.
Darren Taylor, Senior Vice President, SHARE Rewards & Customer Solutions, Majid Al Futtaim, says: "Our priority is to make every interaction with Majid Al Futtaim simple, intuitive, and rewarding. Enabling Jaywan acceptance across our destinations gives customers more ways to pay while maintaining the seamless experience they expect from us. It also reflects the strength of our payment infrastructure, helping reduce transaction costs, accelerate settlement for domestic payments, and enable us to continue delivering new capabilities that meet the evolving needs of our customers."
Jaywan was introduced by Al Etihad Payments as part of the Central Bank of the UAE’s vision for a resilient national payment’s ecosystem.
Andrea Cianchetti, Chief Products Officer at Al Etihad Payments (AEP), says: “Merchant acceptance is where a card scheme becomes real for customers. Majid Al Futtaim operates some of the UAE’s most visited destinations, bringing Jaywan into more of the everyday payment experiences of customers across the country. Our focus is on continuing to expand acceptance across the ecosystem with more merchants, more issuers and more everyday transactions.”
Majid Al Futtaim's integration of Jaywan now extends across its physical footprint, with in-store acceptance enabled through its acquiring partnership with Network International. Online acceptance across the group's digital platforms will be introduced in the coming weeks. Jaywan cards are being issued in phases through participating financial institutions, with acceptance continuing to expand across merchants throughout the UAE.
2026 RTIH Innovation Awards
Payments will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.
The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.
Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.
Check out our 2025 winners here.
Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.
In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”
“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”
He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”
Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.
