When a payment fails, most customers blame the app. But the problem usually starts deeper – in the backend systems the app depends on.
In the UAE, digital wallets like Payit, Careem Pay, and Botim are now part of everyday life – whether it’s splitting a ride or topping up mobile credit. Customers expect speed, ease, and instant confirmation. When things go wrong – even once – trust erodes quickly.
What most users don’t see is how fragile the backend can be. While the UAE’s Instant Payments Platform (IPP) supports real-time clearing, many businesses still run on systems that weren’t built for it.
That mismatch is becoming harder to hide. As wallet adoption grows, even small backend gaps can cause delays – and they’re forcing businesses to rethink how their payment systems are built.
Let’s look at what’s breaking, what’s needed to fix it, and why the changes go deeper than just adding a wallet option
Wallet adoption has raised the bar for businesses. Customers now expect a mobile-first experience that works, every time, without delay. That expectation covers the full transaction flow, from how payments are initiated to how they’re verified and settled in the backend.
When it fails, even briefly, the impact isn’t limited to one payment. Trust drops. A delay at checkout or a missing refund breaks confidence across the brand.
The problem is, the systems behind that experience aren’t always ready. Wallets run on real-time rails and trigger downstream processes instantly, but many backend systems still operate in slow batches with outdated logic for reconciliation, inventory sync, or refund handling. These mismatches are hard to spot in small volumes, but as usage scales, they create breakdowns.
One Dubai retail chain cut closing time from three hours to 15 minutes after automating its wallet settlement process, a shift now needed just to keep up with volume.
As more wallets go live and IPP volume rises, these gaps will get harder to ignore. Businesses still appear to be functioning, but behind the scenes, they’re fighting fires just to settle payments cleanly.
Real-time payments leave less margin or error. As real-time payments become the norm, risk monitoring and audit readiness can’t be delayed or handled manually. There’s no buffer between initiation and settlement, and that means every system involved in the flow needs to verify, log, and flag in real time.
That’s raised the stakes for compliance. Each new wallet, gateway, or open banking connection brings more complexity. It takes only one missing field to trigger a serious review, especially as regulators push for tighter enforcement.
The UAE Central Bank expects clear licensed full visibility and control: encrypted transmission, clean audit trails, and verified identities across every payment, but the problem is that many compliance systems weren’t designed to sit inside the transaction itself. They still operate as a checkpoint, when what’s needed now is live coordination between risk engines, frontend experiences, and back-office logic.
If compliance still runs in batch mode, it’s already outdated.
To support wallet flows and instant payments at scale, businesses need more than surface-level integrations. Based on current infrastructure shifts and regulatory expectations, these are the three areas that demand focused investment:
Without these upgrades, most systems will buckle under wallet volume, and the risk becomes operational.
Getting wallet payments right isn’t just about integrations. It means designing systems that can handle speed, volume, and regulatory pressure, all at once.
At Ripae, we build and operate full-stack payment infrastructure tailored for real-world conditions in the UAE and beyond. That includes plug-and-play APIs for real-time clearing, 24/7 settlement rails to improve liquidity, and built-in risk controls that log and verify every transaction as it happens.
As wallets and real-time rails become the default, more businesses are realizing that their systems need more than patches – they need a foundation built for scale.
If you're rethinking how your payment infrastructure works under pressure, we're here to help.
