Mastercard and Arab Financial Services (AFS) have launched corporate credit and prepaid cards for businesses in the UAE and Egypt, delivered through the AFS Pro mobile app. The UAE rolls out first; Egypt follows. (Mastercard announcement)
AFS Pro bundles corporate card issuing with the rest of a company’s payments: spending controls, real-time transaction monitoring, SoftPOS tap-to-phone acceptance and Pay-by-Link for remote sales, with dashboards that track payables and receivables in one place. The cards run on Mastercard’s network, with its usual security and acceptance layers.
AFS Pro is a ready-made card programme that banks and financial institutions deploy to their customers; businesses do not sign up directly. That puts AFS Pro on the issuing side of a market where UAE SMEs already buy spend-management software direct from Pemo, Pluto and Qashio.
For AFS this is the first product built on the Retail Payment Services Category II licence it took from the Central Bank of the UAE in June, a market entry backed by $150 million in funding. The company is Bahrain-based, roughly 40 years old, owned by 36 banks and financial institutions, and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain. (fintechnews.ae)
“As a leader in corporate payments and digital transformation, Mastercard is our trusted partner in our expansion into the two new key growth markets. Our landmark alliance is a major win for businesses in the UAE and Egypt, as it significantly boosts efficiency, visibility and control over corporate spending.” — Dr Samer Soliman, Group CEO, AFS
Mastercard’s network carries the cards; AFS Pro carries the controls.
The launch is also Mastercard’s third UAE corporate-card push this year, after First Abu Dhabi Bank’s SME Commercial Cards Suite in May and KamelPay’s AbsoluteCard in July (fintechly). The network’s business-card strategy here increasingly runs through regional issuers rather than direct products.
What it means for UAE businesses
No issuing bank was named at launch, so UAE companies will get the cards from whichever financial institution switches AFS Pro on. Pricing and card fees were not disclosed; the announcement was aimed at finance teams, not cardholders. Egypt’s timeline is also open — “next” has no date attached.
For banks, AFS Pro is a corporate card programme they can offer without building one. For SMEs, it joins a field that already includes Mastercard-backed founder cards for UAE startups and newer SME finance tools like Zelo. For now, it is one more way for a UAE business to get a corporate card — and the first sign of what AFS plans to do with its new licence.
What is AFS?
Arab Financial Services is a Bahrain-based payments processor founded around 1986, owned by 36 banks and financial institutions and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain. It holds a Retail Payment Services Category II licence from the Central Bank of the UAE, granted in June 2026.
Who can get the AFS Pro corporate cards?
Businesses, through banks and financial institutions that deploy the AFS Pro platform. No direct sign-up was announced, and no issuing bank was named at launch.
When will the cards launch in Egypt?
No date has been given. The UAE rolls out first, with Egypt to follow.
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