Tabby has been granted a stored value facilities (SVF) licence by the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE), authorising the company to hold customer funds and introduce a new suite of financial products, including spending accounts, cards and money management tools.

The licence marks a step in Tabby’s evolution into a full service financial services app in the UAE, where it already serves millions of customers.

It enables the company to embed everyday financial services including spending, sending and managing money into a platform customers already use.

Tabby has a BNPL licence in Saudi Arabia

Tabby now holds direct regulatory authorisation in its two largest markets. In Saudi Arabia, the company received its buy now pay later licence from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) last year and acquired Tweeq, a SAMA-licensed digital wallet.

The UAE SVF licence further strengthens Tabby’s regulatory foundation, enabling it to build and launch financial products across the GCC on its own infrastructure.

Hosam Arab, CEO and co-founder of Tabby, said: “Millions of people in the UAE already use Tabby for flexible payments. This licence lets us serve them beyond credit and build an experience that delivers what money should actually feel like.”

Iranian-linked cyberattacks surged sharply across the Middle East last month, with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) incidents rising eightfold during the month, according to cybersecurity firm StormWall.

The data reflects a significant escalation in cyber activity following heightened geopolitical tensions from 28 February, when a joint US-Israeli military operation targeting Iran triggered a wider regional response.

StormWall said that between March 1 and March 20, the number of DDoS attacks recorded across its regional clients increased 8x compared to the same period in February, marking one of the sharpest spikes on record.

“The volume of DDoS traffic currently hitting the Middle East is unlike anything we’ve seen before — even during past periods of geopolitical tension,” said Ramil Khantimirov, the CEO and co-founder of StormWall.

“This is a highly organised, targeted, and growing campaign that will likely continue to escalate.”

UAE among key targets

The attacks were concentrated across a handful of countries, with:

• Israel accounting for 36 per cent of incidents
• The UAE at 21 per cent
• Bahrain at 14 per cent

StormWall said the campaign initially focused on Israeli government and telecom infrastructure, before expanding to other Gulf states.

The most affected sectors included public sector entities, banking and telecommunications: industries seen as both operationally critical and symbolically important.

“If you have digital infrastructure in the region that isn’t properly protected, now is the time to act,” Khantimirov said.

“Over the coming months, we’re likely to see more attacks — and more powerful ones.”

Broader cyber risks emerging

Separate analysis from predictive cyber threat intelligence platform CloudSEK suggests the cyber threat may extend beyond short-term disruption.

The firm said in a new report this month that it too has seen an uptick in Iranian-linked cyber attacks.

CloudSEK is therefore urging organisations, especially those operating in the GCC and Middle East — and adjacent sectors supporting regional infrastructure — to take immediate defensive steps, including:

• Patching exposed internet-facing systems linked to known exploited vulnerabilities
• Auditing exchange, VPN, and web-facing infrastructure for compromise
• Hunting for webshells, suspicious tunneling tools, and malware indicators
• Rotating privileged credentials and auditing administrative access
• Reviewing aviation, energy, telecom, logistics, and industrial environments for abnormal activity
• Blocking known indicators of compromise and validating detection coverage against the malware families referenced in the report

The financial impact of cyber attacks are significant. The average cyber breach in the Middle East costs roughly $7m–$7.5m, placing the region among the most expensive globally for organisations hit by attacks, according to IBM Security data.

Globally, cybercrime is now estimated to cost around $10.5tn annually, a figure that continues to climb as state-linked and organised attacks accelerate, based on industry estimates from Cybersecurity Ventures and other market research.

A fire at the largest of Australia’s two oil refineries has hit petrol production, company and government officials said on Thursday, just as the nation faces pressure to shore up fuel security with the Iran war disrupting global supply.

State fire authorities said the blaze, which broke out at a 120,000 barrels-per day refinery run by Viva Energy on Wednesday night, had been brought “under control” at noon (0200 GMT) on Thursday.

The fire came at a bad time for Australia as it depends on imports for 80 per cent of its fuel needs and has been racing to replace supply disrupted by the Middle East conflict, which has driven up energy prices worldwide.

“This is not a positive development, but obviously there’s a long way to go in terms of working out just what the impact is,” Energy Minister Chris Bowen told Channel Nine.

Viva Energy’s refinery supplies over half of the fuel in Australia’s second most populous state, Victoria, and a tenth of the country’s total demand.

The company said it expects output of petrol and aviation gasoline will be affected, but it will meet fuel demand through imports.

The plant is still producing jet fuel and diesel but at reduced levels for safety reasons, Bowen said.

“I would expect we’d see a price hike depending on the scale of the damage, and secondly, it reinforces the challenges we have in terms of sovereign and resilient capabilities here,” Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst John Coyne said.

The incident comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits Kuala Lumpur on Thursday to discuss securing fuel supplies with his Malaysian counterpart, Anwar Ibrahim, following similar trips to Singapore and Brunei.

Malaysia and Brunei, which produce crude oil and refined products, could increase production but only to a certain degree, Coyne said.

No injuries have been reported from the fire at the refinery located about an hour’s drive from Melbourne. The cause of the blaze and the extent of the damage was not immediately clear.

In the nearly seven weeks since the war began, supply fears have stoked panic buying, doubling demand for fuel in some areas, despite assurances from the government the market is well supplied.

Last month, Albanese announced temporary relief measures including halving the fuel excise and suspending the heavy road user charge for three months to help households cope with a surge in costs driven by the Iran war.

“It’s going to be a very bumpy and expensive few months,” said Tennant Reed, climate change and energy director at Australian Industry Group.

In March the government committed to underwriting a portion of fuel purchases by refiners and suppliers.

“We’ll continue to work with the company to do what we can to make sure that anything that is offline is brought online as soon as possible,” Albanese said at a media conference in Malaysia’s administrative capital, Putrajaya.

Reed said the government could go to market to secure more supply to make up for any loss of production at Viva’s plant, but it would still take weeks for the cargoes to arrive.

Viva Energy CEO Scott Wyatt told reporters the primary focus was to completely put out the fire that hit operations at two units at the refinery before assessing damage and safely restoring production.

“All the other units are still operating and still in production but they are at minimum rates to maintain safety across the site,” he said.

“We’ll only start increasing production again once we’re confident that we can do that safely.”

Viva’s shares were on a trading halt pending an update on the impact of the fire.

Dubai Municipality has completed 36 per cent of a stormwater drainage system development project in Deira, part of ongoing efforts to enhance the emirate’s infrastructure efficiency, officials said.

The project, with a total cost of Dhs500m, will serve 13 key areas spanning 4,700 hectares through the development of 60km of stormwater drainage networks. Work is progressing as scheduled, with completion targeted by the end of 2027.

Director general engineer Marwan Ahmed bin Ghalita reviewed the project during a field visit, accompanied by senior executive, administrative and engineering officials.

The areas covered include Al Qusais 1 and 2, Oud Al Muteena, Mizhar 3, Al Twar 1 and 3, Muhaisnah 4, Al Nahda 2, Al Qusais Industrial Area 1, Al Garhoud, Casablanca Street, Dubai Airport area and Al Rashidiya.

As part of the first of three main phases, 22 km of drainage networks have been developed, with pipe diameters reaching up to 2.5 metres. A new pumping station near Dubai Creek, with a capacity of up to 8,000 litres per second, has been constructed to support the system’s efficiency.

Tasreef Programme: A Dhs30bn initiative to develop Dubai’s stormwater drainage network

The project is a key component of the Tasreef Programme, a Dhs30bn initiative to develop Dubai’s stormwater drainage network into a unified system characterised by high efficiency and flexibility. The programme aims to increase infrastructure capacity by 700 per cent, reduce construction, operation and maintenance costs by 20 per cent, and extend the lifespan of the network.

Bin Ghalita said the projects form a cornerstone of efforts to enhance strategic infrastructure through sustainable, advanced and adaptable solutions aligned with future requirements.

Adel Mohammed Al Marzouqi, CEO of the Waste and Sewerage Agency at Dubai Municipality, said the project focuses on enhancing operational efficiency through flexible engineering solutions in line with global standards, increasing capacity and reducing the risks of water accumulation while supporting service quality and business continuity.

Dubai Municipality said it continues to manage and develop stormwater and sewerage networks through an integrated approach aligned with global standards, supported by innovative engineering solutions and smart technologies.

Read: Dubai completes phase 1 of Al Quoz sewerage project worth Dhs250m

The Federal Tax Authority (FTA) said amendments to administrative penalties for violations of tax laws in the UAE have come into force, aiming to reduce compliance burdens and encourage voluntary disclosure by businesses.

The changes, introduced under Cabinet Decision No.(129) of 2025 amending certain provisions of Cabinet Decision No (40) of 2017 on administrative penalties imposed for violations of tax laws in the UAE, took effect on April 14, the authority said in a statement.

The FTA said the revisions are designed to support taxpayers, help them regularise their positions and improve compliance, while enhancing the country’s competitiveness and ease of doing business.

“This platform represents a shift away from resource-intensive traditional processes towards more efficient digital models that accelerate access to financial services and reduce operational costs,” said Abdulaziz Mohammed Al Mulla, director general of the FTA.

Updated rules linked to tax violations

The updated rules apply to violations under tax procedures, excise tax and value-added tax legislation, with several penalties reduced or recalibrated.

Among the changes, the penalty for failing to submit tax-related records in Arabic when requested has been reduced to Dhs5,000 ($1,361) from Dhs20,000.

Penalties for failing to update tax records have also been lowered, with fines set at Dhs1,000 per violation and Dhs5,000 for repeat offences within 24 months, compared with previous penalties of up to Dhs10,000.

In addition, the penalty for legal representatives failing to notify the authority of their appointment has been cut to Dhs1,000 from Dhs10,000, with such penalties payable from the legal representative’s own funds.

The authority said the amendments also cover penalties related to late tax payments, incorrect tax returns and failures to submit voluntary disclosures, among other violations.

Officials said the changes are intended to encourage taxpayers to correct errors promptly and submit voluntary disclosures without facing significant financial penalties.

The move forms part of broader efforts by the UAE to modernise its tax framework and support businesses while maintaining regulatory oversight in line with evolving economic requirements.

Read: Central Bank of UAE partners with Norbloc to develop unified e-KYC platform