United Arab Emirates · Money service business
Lari Exchange
Lari Exchange is an exchange house with its head office in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) licenses it for Exchange Business, category C, under identification number 03.01.03.003.1981.01. The firm states that Abbas Darwish Lari founded it in Abu Dhabi in 1969. It offers international money transfers, currency exchange, bill payments and a Mastercard multi-currency prepaid card to customers in the UAE through branches and digital channels.
Licences and registrations
Held by Lari Exchange (LEI 254900FYYH9UDG4NT140). 1 entry on 1 of the 22 tracked registers, retrieved 24 September 2026.
| Register | Licence | Number | Jurisdiction | Status | Registered | Ends | Activities | Register entry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CBUAE Register of Licensed Financial Institutions - Exchange BusinessCentral Bank of the UAE (CBUAE)Linked by LEI. Matched by Elucidate to GLEIF on name, country and address. | Exchange BusinessMoney Transmitter / Remittance | 03.01.03.003.1981.01 | United Arab Emirates | Active | — | — |
|
Search the register ↗ |
- Licences belong to the legal entity, not to a BIC.
- Each licence applies in the country of the regulator that granted it.
- Registers are tracked in 37 countries. Licences granted elsewhere are not recorded here.
- The register entries and their trading names were not matched against sanctions lists. The sanctions facts on this page cover the BIC and its LEI only.
Swift network
Swift’s ISO 9362 BIC directory
- BIC
- LAEEAEAAXXX head office
- Connection to Swift
- Connected to SwiftThis BIC is registered as a live address on the Swift network. The institution sends and receives Swift messages under LAEEAEAA directly.
- Swift GPI
- Not on the member list
- Payment schemes and systems
- No entry in the EPC registers, the ECB T2 and TIPS lists or the SIX Bank Master cites this BIC
- Branch codes
- None: head-office BIC only
- BIC first registered
- 1999-12-04
- Last updated
- 2018-03-27
Overview
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
Customers
Not published
Employees
Not published
Ownership
Not published
Firm type
Money remittance
- Head office
- Saif Bin Darwish Building, Liwa Street, P.O. Box 988 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- Founder
- Abbas Darwish Lari
- Name in the local language
- لاري للصرافة
Online
- Websites & references
- lariexchange.com ↗ did not load when checked
- Official social accounts
- None found
Sources · 8 pages consulted
- centralbank.ae/media/hw0lreyi/cb-register-august-2026.pdf
- lariexchange.com/
- lariexchange.com/Travelflex
- lariexchange.com/news
- linkedin.com/company/lariexchangeuae
- chinadaily.com.cn/a/202511/21/WS692051c9a310d6866eb2aca1.html
- economymiddleeast.com/news/uae-executes-first-ever-cross-border-digital-currency-payment-with-china/
- arabianbusiness.com/finance/jaywan-card-new-payment-service
Authorisation
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
- Operates under
- Its own licences
The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) licenses the firm for Exchange Business, category C, with its head office in Abu Dhabi.
| Authority | Licence or registration | Number | Held | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) United Arab Emirates | Exchange Business (category C) | 03.01.03.003.1981.01 | In its own name | Active | centralbank.ae ↗ |
Licences and registrations the research found, at home and abroad, as the firm and its regulators publish them. The Licences and registrations card shows the entries on the registers the directory tracks.
Partners and safeguarding
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
- Payment schemes and card networks
- Swift Direct
Mastercard Access not stated lariexchange.com ↗
Jaywan Access not stated arabianbusiness.com ↗
UnionPay Access not stated arabianbusiness.com ↗
Banks and regulated firms the firm says hold its customers’ money, issue its cards, sponsor its accounts or settle its payments, as it discloses them in its terms and notices.
Products and markets
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
The firm offers remittances, currency exchange and bill payments through branches, a mobile app, an e-branch, WhatsApp and a call centre. Its Travelflex Mastercard prepaid card can hold funds in up to 12 currencies.
It serves customers in the United Arab Emirates under its CBUAE exchange business licence.
- Sells to
- Consumers
- Serves customers in
- United Arab Emirates
Recent events
Researched 29 Sep 2026 · Sources
-
Other
Lari Exchange issued the first co-badged Jaywan–UnionPay prepaid card, launched during a People's Bank of China governor's visit to Abu Dhabi.
chinadaily.com.cn ↗
Compliance-relevant events of the last three years, newest first: fines and enforcement, investigations, security incidents, licence changes, funding rounds, acquisitions and leadership changes. Each links to its source.
Identifiers
Head-office record
- BIC
- LAEEAEAAXXX
- How the BIC breaks down
- LAEEBank
- AECountry · United Arab Emirates
- AALocation
- XXXBranch · head office
- Branch description
- Not recorded in the directory
- LEI
- 254900FYYH9UDG4NT140
- LEI record
- View on GLEIF ↗
- Licence no. · CBUAE-EB
- 03.01.03.003.1981.01
- How the LEI was matched
- BIC: Mapped to this BIC in the Swift and GLEIF BIC-to-LEI relationship file.Register entry: Matched by Elucidate to GLEIF on name, country and address.
- Register-entry ID
- 6a481fee171e
Profile
- Type
- Money service businessRemittance, currency exchange, cheque cashing and money orders. Usually registered with an anti-money-laundering supervisor rather than licensed prudentially. Taken from the licences on the tracked registers.
- Regulation
- Prudential licenceAuthorised with capital, safeguarding and conduct requirements, e.g. an authorised payment or e-money institution in the EU or UK, a major payment institution in Singapore, or a MiCA crypto-asset service provider.
- Register licences
- 1 entry on 1 register
- Activities
- Currency exchange
- Licensed in
- United Arab Emirates
- Country · region
- United Arab Emirates · Middle East & North Africa
- Trading venues (MIC)
- No MIC registered under this LEI list of 2026-09-17
- OFAC sanctions
- No listing cites this BIC
- EU sanctions
- No listing matched this BIC or its LEI
- Country sanctions
- No country programme
Types come from Swift’s BIC classification, the licences on the 22 tracked registers, and the ECB and FSB bank lists. Most banks outside the euro area appear as financial institutions, because their supervisors’ registers are not tracked yet.
Ownership and group
GLEIF relationship records
GLEIF’s relationship records name no parent for this LEI, and no group page is published for it.
Addresses
- Registered address
- SAIF BIN DARWISH BUILDING LIWA STREET ABU DHABI 988 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
- Operational address
- SAIF BIN DARWISH BUILDING LIWA STREET ABU DHABI ABU DHABI UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
ISO 20022 identification
As an agent in a Swift cross-border payment message (CBPR+)
A CBPR+ message identifies this institution by its BIC, and may add its LEI or a clearing code. CBPR+ does not allow a name and postal address next to a BIC.
- Identified by
- BIC, with its LEI
- Roles in CBPR+
- Any agent, including the instructing and instructed agents
CBPR+
For cross-border payments on Swift: the BIC, with the LEI and clearing code where known
<FinInstnId>
<BICFI>LAEEAEAAXXX</BICFI>
<LEI>254900FYYH9UDG4NT140</LEI>
</FinInstnId>Full record
Every ISO 20022 element the directory holds. Base ISO 20022 allows them together. CBPR+ does not allow a name and address next to a BIC
<FinInstnId>
<BICFI>LAEEAEAAXXX</BICFI>
<LEI>254900FYYH9UDG4NT140</LEI>
<Nm>LARI EXCHANGE</Nm>
<PstlAdr>
<TwnNm>ABU DHABI</TwnNm>
<Ctry>AE</Ctry>
<AdrLine>SAIF BIN DARWISH BUILDING LIWA STREET ABU DHABI 988</AdrLine>
</PstlAdr>
</FinInstnId>The BIC, name and address are as published in Swift’s BIC directory. The LEI comes from the Swift and GLEIF BIC-to-LEI file. Check them against your own records before use.
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Sources & method
Every value comes from a public source, such as Swift’s ISO 9362 BIC directory, GLEIF or the OFAC and EU sanctions lists. Most sources are matched on a BIC or an LEI, not on a name.
Swift GPI membership is matched on names and is indicative. A missing sanctions match does not mean that no listing applies. Always screen against the official lists.
Register entries are not screened against sanctions lists. The sanctions facts on this page cover the BIC and its LEI only.
An institution is one entry in the directory: a BIC8 in Swift’s directory, or a firm on a tracked register that holds no BIC. Licences held by an institution with a BIC are shown on its page.
Read the methodology →Credits for this page
- CBUAE Register of Licensed Financial Institutions - Exchange Business—Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) · register ↗ as at 24 September 2026
- Overview, authorisation, partners, products, leadership and events—researched per institution by an AI model with web search, from the firm's own website, terms and filings, regulators' registers and notices, company registers and news. Licences, partners, figures, people and events link to their source, and each card shows the research date. AI research can be wrong or out of date, so check key facts at the source.
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