CBDC Card Payment Patent Granted to UAE Central Bank

ChangeBridge: Patent Grants - Business Methods (G06Q)

Published March 31st, 2026

Detected March 31st, 2026

Summary

The USPTO granted Patent US12591870B2 to the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates for a system enabling secure processing of CBDC transactions initiated by payment cards at point-of-sale terminals. The patent covers distributed ledger technology for CBDC token transfers, signature verification, and transaction validation in a card issuer node environment.

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What changed

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates received US Patent 12591870B2 for a method of processing central bank digital currency (CBDC) transactions via payment cards. The system enables a card issuer node in a distributed ledger environment to receive payment messages from terminals, generate signature data structures, and validate CBDC transactions containing token transfer details including token quantity, current owner, intended acquirer, currency type, and validation instructions.

This patent grant is informational for parties interested in CBDC payment technology and digital currency innovation. No immediate compliance actions are required. Financial institutions, payment processors, or technology companies developing CBDC payment solutions may wish to review this patent to assess potential licensing needs or to understand the competitive landscape in digital currency payment processing.

Source document (simplified)

← USPTO Patent Grants

Secure processing of central bank digital currency (CBDC) card payments

Grant US12591870B2 Kind: B2 Mar 31, 2026

Assignee

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates

Inventors

Stefan Iliev, Sotiria Fytraki, Bogdan Catalin Paunescu, Richard G. Brown

Abstract

Central bank digital currency (CBDC) tokens are used for payment in a transaction initiated by a payment card at an acquirer's point-of-sale. To facilitate these transactions, a card issuer node in a distributed ledger environment receives a payment message from a payment terminal. The payment message, comprising a request to conduct a CBDC-based transaction, contains a signature transmitted to the payment terminal by a payment card. The card issuer node generates a signature data structure that contains the signature. The card issuer node also generates a transaction message containing components of the transaction, such as a number of tokens to be transferred, a current owner of the tokens to be transferred, an intended acquirer of the tokens, a currency type of the tokens, and/or instructions for validating the transaction. The transaction is validated based at least in part on the signature data structure in the transaction message.