Magnati is one of the names that comes up most often when UAE businesses talk about taking card payments, both at a counter and online. It began as the payments arm of First Abu Dhabi Bank, and it is a common choice for merchants who want a local acquirer rather than an international gateway.
The most important fact about Magnati right now is ownership. A Brookfield led consortium took a 60 percent stake in Magnati in 2022, completed its takeover of Network International in September 2024, and the two businesses completed their merger in late 2025. Both brands are still operating independently for now. The plan, as reported at completion, is to integrate in phases and for the combined company to eventually carry the Network International name.
We integrate payment gateways for a living, so this guide is about the practical side: what you are actually getting, how the integration tends to work, and what to check before you go live. We do not set Magnati’s fees and we are not an agent for it. You contract with the provider directly.
What the Network International merger means for merchants
If you already process with Magnati, nothing has to change on any particular day because of the merger itself. Your contract, your terminals and your integration keep working. But a phased integration of two acquirers usually touches the things merchants actually depend on, so it is worth planning for.
Branding. Statement descriptors, payment pages and correspondence may change name over time. Customers who do not recognise a charge on their statement dispute it, so watch for this.
Platforms and APIs. When two processors combine, they tend to converge on one technology platform eventually. That can mean a migration of your online integration, new credentials or a new settlement report format. None of this has been announced as a date that we have seen, so ask your account manager directly what the roadmap is for your product.
Contracts and pricing. Existing terms continue until they are changed. When your contract comes up for renewal, it is reasonable to ask which entity you will be contracting with and whether terms will move.
Your own integration. This is the part you control. If your website or ERP talks to the gateway through one clean, separate layer, a later platform change is a contained project. If gateway calls are scattered through your checkout and your accounting, it is not. That is good practice with any provider, and a merger is simply the moment it pays off.
For a business choosing a provider today, the practical consequence is that comparing Magnati and Network International as rivals makes less sense than it did. They now sit in the same group. Compare the specific product, terms and integration route you would actually be using.
What a local acquirer means for you
An acquirer is the bank side of a card payment: the party that accepts the transaction on your behalf and pays the money into your account. A gateway is the technical layer that carries the payment from your website or terminal to the acquirer.
Some providers are mainly gateways and route to someone else’s acquiring. Some, like the local acquirers, offer both. The practical difference for a UAE business shows up in three places.
Settlement. A local acquirer settles in dirhams into a UAE bank account, which avoids currency conversion on domestic sales.
Approval rates on local cards. Domestic cards processed by a domestic acquirer tend to be treated as domestic transactions, which matters for decline rates and for the cost of each payment.
One relationship for terminals and online. If you take payments both in a shop and on a website, having the same acquirer for both can make reconciliation simpler, because the settlement reports come from one place in one format.
None of that makes a local acquirer automatically the right choice. If most of your customers pay from abroad, an international gateway may suit you better, which we cover in accepting international payments as a UAE business.
How online integration usually works
There are two common shapes, and the choice between them drives most of the effort.
Hosted payment page
Your customer is redirected to a payment page hosted by the provider, enters their card details there, and is returned to your site with a result. The card data never touches your system, which keeps your compliance scope small.
This is the faster route and the sensible default for most businesses. The trade off is less control over how the payment page looks and behaves.
Direct API
Your checkout collects the payment inside your own pages, usually with a component supplied by the provider so that raw card numbers still do not pass through your servers. You get a more seamless checkout. You also take on more of the build and more of the testing.
We set out the general trade off between the two in our payment gateway integration page.
The part that decides whether it works: webhooks and settlement
Taking the payment is the visible part. The part that decides whether your books are right is what happens after.
Webhooks. When a payment succeeds, fails, is refunded or is disputed, the provider sends a notification to your system. If your system does not listen for these properly, an order can show as unpaid when the money arrived, or as paid when it was later refunded. Treat the webhook as the source of truth for payment status, not the redirect back to your website, because customers close browser tabs.
Settlement files. The money that lands in your bank is a batch, net of fees, refunds and chargebacks, and it almost never matches your invoices one to one. The provider supplies a settlement report that explains the batch. Matching that report to your invoices is the job most businesses still do by hand at month end, and it is the job most worth automating. We explain the mechanics in payment reconciliation in the UAE.
What to check before you sign
Which payment methods are included. Ask specifically about the card schemes your customers use, wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, and any local schemes relevant to your market.
Settlement timing. How many days between a payment and the money in your account. This is a real cost to a business with tight cash flow, even though it never appears on the fee schedule.
The fee structure in full. Not just the percentage. Setup fees, monthly fees, refund fees, chargeback fees and any cross-border markup. The headline rate is rarely the number that matters, as we explain in what payment gateway fees actually consist of.
The sandbox. Ask for test credentials before you commit. A provider with a usable test environment saves days of integration time.
Settlement report format. Ask for a sample settlement file. If it cannot be matched to your invoices without a person interpreting it, reconciliation will stay manual.
At the counter
If you also take card payments in a shop or restaurant, the terminal can be connected to your till so that the amount is sent from the till to the terminal rather than typed in by the cashier. That removes keying errors and means card payments and sales reconcile against each other on their own. We do this as part of Odoo POS for retail and for restaurants.
Is it the right gateway for you
It depends on where your customers are, how you sell and what system the payment needs to land in. A UAE business selling mainly to UAE customers, with a shop as well as a website, is the clearest fit for a local acquirer. A business selling mainly abroad, or one that needs a very developer led checkout, may be better served elsewhere.
We have no commercial interest in which provider you choose, which is the main reason we are useful in that conversation. If you are still comparing, our list of payment gateways in the UAE sets the main options side by side.
Common questions
Did Magnati merge with Network International?
Yes. Both are owned by a Brookfield led consortium, and the merger of the two businesses was completed in late 2025. The brands are running independently for now and are being integrated in phases, with the combined company expected to use the Network International name in time.
Is Magnati a payment gateway or a bank?
It is a payments company that acts as an acquirer and also provides the technical means to accept payments, online and at terminals. It is not a retail bank, and you settle into your own business bank account.
Can Magnati connect to Odoo or WooCommerce?
A connection can be built to either, whether through a plugin where one exists for your version or through the provider’s API. The important part is not the checkout but the webhooks and settlement matching on the other side, which is where most integrations fall short.
Do you set the fees?
No. Fees and settlement terms are agreed between you and the provider. We build and support the technical connection, and we will tell you honestly if a different provider would suit you better.
How long does integration take?
A hosted payment page on a standard platform is usually a short project. A direct API checkout connected to an ERP with automated reconciliation takes longer. Most of the time goes into testing refunds, failures and settlement, not into the payment itself.
