In this episode of Wall Street to MENA, powered by Fintech TV, Raghda Ibraheem sits down with Arnaud Wenger, Group Chief Compliance Officer at Tazapay, fresh off a Series B extension backed by Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and CMT Digital.
With licenses already secured across Singapore, Canada, Australia and the United States, and an active application underway in the UAE, Arnaud explains what it actually takes to run a compliance programme across multiple regulatory environments at once. His verdict on the biggest bottleneck in cross-border payments: regulatory fragmentation. Every jurisdiction has its own risk profile and its own interpretation of frameworks like the FATF Travel Rule, and no global model can simply be copied and pasted from one market to the next.
The conversation covers why Dubai’s position between Europe and Asia gives the UAE a regulatory vision drawing from both directions, what has to be true before a stablecoin payment earns the same trust as a bank transfer, and why technology alone doesn’t create that trust. Arnaud closes with direct advice for fintech founders in the region: build your compliance programme first, not last. Without regulator and banking partner trust, even a license means nothing.