The Central Bank of the UAE has allowed banks to use foreign data centers, after Iranian attacks on the country’s digital infrastructure caused widespread disruption to operations.
The UAE regulator sent out short-term no-objection certificates to allow banks to move some data offshore, The Banker reported. The UAE and other Gulf countries usually have strict rules about keeping customer data onshore — a common source of complaints from international banks, which have to replicate data warehousing across the region. There have been no similar moves to loosen data sovereignty rules elsewhere in the Gulf.
UAE banks suffered service outages after an Amazon data center in the country was hit by drones; a data center was also struck in Bahrain. Those strikes have raised concerns about the wider risk to Gulf efforts to become a global artificial intelligence hub.