What are the dealing hours in the UAE?

OTC desks in the UAE keep their own week, and Meridian OTC's dealing hours are Sunday to Thursday, 09:00–18:00 GST, as of September 2026. A dealer answers a quote request within the hour inside that window. Requests that arrive on Friday or Saturday are picked up on Sunday morning.

The desk calendar is only half of the schedule. The other half is the banking calendar, because the dirham leg of your trade moves on rails that keep different days — we break down how long each payout rail takes in a separate guide. The mismatch between the two calendars is what decides when your money lands.

Which days do UAE banks settle payments?

UAE banks settle payments Monday to Friday, since the country moved its weekend to Saturday and Sunday on 1 January 2022. The federal public sector works a half day on Friday, and many bank branches close early that day. The effective settlement week is four full days plus a short Friday.

According to the UAE government portal, the Saturday–Sunday weekend has applied across the federal government and the banking system since January 2022. Before that, the working week ran Sunday to Thursday — which is why some desks in Dubai still deal those days even though the banks around them have moved.

UAEFTS, the Central Bank's transfer system that carries large AED payouts, runs on bank business days only; see how UAEFTS works for the mechanics. SWIFT adds the holidays of every country on the route, so a USD payout answers to more than one calendar.

When can a trade settle AED on the same day?

A USDT sale settles AED the same day when the trade is agreed before the sending bank's UAEFTS cut-off on a day the banks are open — in practice Monday to Thursday, with Friday too short to plan on. Banks set cut-offs in the early-to-mid afternoon, so morning is the safe side of the day.

Same-day applies to payouts into an account in your own name once your trading account is approved. The cost of the trade itself sits in the published spread bands — 0.08% to 0.40% by size — and does not change with the day of the week.

The working rules the desk applies every week, as of September 2026:

• Book large tickets Monday to Wednesday; Thursday is the last full overlap of desk and bank.
• Treat every Sunday trade as a Monday settlement.
• Get the day's bank cut-off confirmed in writing when you accept the quote.
• Keep Eid weeks clear of anything time-critical.

What is GST, and how does it line up with other markets?

GST in the UAE means Gulf Standard Time, fixed at UTC+4 with no daylight-saving change, as of September 2026. Dubai never moves its clocks, so a recurring 10:00 booking stays at 10:00 all year.

The offsets around it do move. Dubai sits three hours ahead of London in summer and four in winter; eight hours ahead of New York in summer and nine in winter; four hours behind Singapore year-round. A 09:00 GST open is 06:00 in London in summer, and the desk closes at 18:00 GST just as New York's morning gets going.

For a client wiring USD from the US, the practical effect is that SWIFT instructions leave Dubai before the US banking day starts. That is one reason USD payouts take two to five business days while AED pays out the same day.

How do public holidays and Ramadan change the schedule?

UAE public holidays close the banks and stop UAEFTS for the day. Most of them — Eid Al Fitr, Eid Al Adha, Islamic New Year, the Prophet's Birthday — follow the Hijri calendar, so the exact Gregorian dates are confirmed by official announcement only shortly before. National Day and New Year's Day are fixed.

Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha each close banks for several days in a row. A large settlement booked into an Eid week can slide by the better part of a week, and a SWIFT payout caught between a UAE holiday and a US holiday slides on both ends. Keep Eid weeks clear of anything time-critical.

During Ramadan, UAE labour rules cut private-sector working hours by two hours a day, and banks publish shortened branch hours. Cut-offs move earlier with them. Confirm the day's timing with your dealer before committing a ticket in that month.

The bottom line on UAE dealing hours

Deal Monday to Thursday before the bank cut-off and AED lands the same day; deal Sunday and it lands Monday; anything after Thursday's cut-off slides into a short Friday. The full sequence of selling USDT in Dubai — approval, quote, transfer, wire — fits inside one of those four days once your account exists.

The account is the part to fix early: approval takes one business day in most cases, and the document list is in the onboarding section. Clients who approve the account a week before they need the money are the ones who actually get same-day settlement.

This guide is informational and is not legal, tax or investment advice, nor an invitation to buy or sell any virtual asset. Rules and figures are as of September 2026 — re-check the sources before acting. Virtual assets may lose their value in full or in part and are subject to extreme volatility.