FAB, Mastercard Debut Payment Ring in UAE: Fitness and Fintech Unite

Editorial Team

Last updated 20-01-2026

3 min

FAB has launched a fitness payment ring in the UAE with Mastercard, Tappy and Thales.

The ring tracks activity and supports contactless payments, using secure “card tokenisation”.

Users pay with a simple tap, “no phone, no wallet”, anywhere contactless is accepted.

Partners say collaboration turned “ambitious technology into everyday tools”.

Early adoption will hinge on trust, but the idea “ticks a lot of boxes”.

A new kind of wearable has quietly landed in the UAE, and it’s turning a few heads in the fintech and fitness crowds alike. First Abu Dhabi Bank has teamed up with Mastercard, Tappy Technologies and Thales to launch a fitness payment ring that doesn’t just count steps, it also lets users pay with a simple tap of the hand. No phone, no wallet. Neat, right?

The ring blends fitness tracking with contactless payments using card tokenisation, which is a fancy way of saying your card details are replaced with secure digital tokens. Those tokens sit inside a miniaturised chip supplied by Thales, doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes to keep transactions safe. Users can load their FAB Mastercard debit or credit card onto the ring and pay anywhere contactless payments are accepted. It’s all very slick and, believe it or not, this is the first time a major bank has rolled out something like this at scale.

I’ve lost count of how many startup demos I’ve seen over the years promising to make payments “invisible”, especially around wearable tech. Most felt like a bit of a faff. That said, a ring makes sense. You’re already wearing it at the gym or on a run, and pulling out a phone with sweaty hands is no one’s idea of progress. I reckon this form factor might actually stick.

The product is being promoted by a global superstar, although the real story sits with the partnerships behind it. Abdelhafid Mordi, CEO of Thales in the UAE, said the launch shows how collaboration can turn ambitious technology into everyday tools, adding that Thales is focused on supporting a secure, digital and knowledge-driven economy in line with the country’s wider vision.

Tappy Technologies, which specialises in wearable payment solutions, provided the know-how on embedding payment tech into compact devices. Its co-founder and COO Suboor Ahmed described the launch as a defining moment for wearable payments, crediting the combined efforts of FAB, Mastercard and Thales, as well as Tappy’s own team, for getting the ring over the line.

From what’s been shared, the ring comes in different colours and sizes and is available through FAB’s online and retail banking channels. There’s also a companion mobile app offering personalised fitness insights and updates over time. On the flip side, it’s still early days, and adoption will depend on whether users feel comfortable trusting a ring with both their health data and their money. I’m not a fan of overhyping wearables, but this one feels spot on for a region that’s eager to experiment with how banking fits into daily life.

Over at Arageek, conversations with founders often come back to one thing: solving real problems without adding friction. A payment ring that gets out of the way, well… I mean, that ticks a lot of boxes. Whether it becomes a mainstream habit in the UAE is another question, but it definately shows how far local banks and their partners are willing to go to stay ahead of the curve.

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