Some payments from Saudi Arabia to UAE face blocks, report says 

Bank transfers and electronic payments from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates are being blocked in some cases, while other payment corridors are operating normally, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

The report, citing unnamed sources, said both businesses and individuals had faced such problems over the past several weeks. It was not clear how widespread the disruptions were.

Saudi Arabia’s central bank said that there were no direct restrictions on any specific country.

“There are no direct restrictions on specific countries; banks apply risk-based measures consistently across all transactions to safeguard the integrity of the financial system,” the central bank said.

The central bank did not say whether delays in bank transfers or electronic payments had increased.

A UAE official told Bloomberg that the country’s ministry of economy and tourism had not received reports from private companies about such delays.

“The UAE and Saudi Arabia maintain deep and longstanding economic and commercial ties, supported by significant trade and investment flows between the two countries,” the UAE official said.

The report said Saudi Arabia and the UAE have growing bilateral trade and share a regional payment infrastructure.

However, it noted that relations between the two countries have also faced pressure as both compete to become the region’s main hub for sectors including finance and artificial intelligence.

The two countries also differ over military operations in Yemen, while the UAE has said it will leave OPEC, the oil producers’ group largely led by Saudi Arabia.

Separately, Reuters reported on Monday that UAE lender Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank said some of its banking services had been disrupted by technological problems over the past week.

The bank said the issues had affected payments and transfers through its mobile application and were limited to retail customers.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank said the problems had been resolved.

The lender is owned by the Abu Dhabi government through sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company.