UAE: Abu Dhabi Financial Services

A significant proportion of the UAE’s Islamic financial services sector is based in Abu Dhabi. Home to two of the three largest Islamic banks in the country, three of its most successful takaful (Islamic insurance) firms and a multitude of sharia-compliant investment funds, the emirate is also emerging as an important regional centre of Islamic financing. Moreover, demand for Islamic mutual funds...

While it has been another challenging year for Abu Dhabi’s capital market, some developments in the fixed-income segment, new equities listings and a raft of regulations that promise to add more depth to the market have ensured that it was also an interesting one. The significant regulatory steps taken over the past year, supplemented by a pipeline of reforms still to come, form the framework for...

Operating within the largest banking sector in the GCC, Abu Dhabi’s banks have thrived, and today the UAE capital is home to some of the most successful lenders in the country. Recent years have seen a number of regulatory changes brought in. These include more prudent credit risk management policies, new controls on lending activity, and changes to the nature of banks’ concentration of risk...