UAE: Dubai Financial Services

The Islamic financial services (IFS) industry has grown increasingly popular in recent years, with worldwide assets totalling $1.8trn in 2012 and forecast to top $2trn by the end of 2014. Having already established a reputation as a leading regional financial centre with abundant liquidity, Dubai has emerged as a major beneficiary of the IFS growth story. Sharia-compliant project financing,...

Driven by enhanced liquidity in the banking sector, rising property prices and an overall improvement in the domestic economy, Dubai’s capital markets began 2013 in full recovery mode. The Dubai Financial Market is a largely retail market at present, but it is preparing for a surge in institutional trading activity and an influx of foreign investment as a result of the MSCI index upgrade to “...

The sector appears to have largely recovered from the 2008-11 economic crisis, with the first half of 2013 seeing net profits in the UAE’s banking sector rising 20% to $3.7bn, while total assets grew 8% to $517bn during the same period, although there are a number of risks that remain outstanding. The introduction of new regulations has helped to improve overall stability in the real estate...

The UAE is one of the largest insurance markets in the Gulf region, and Dubai takes an impressive share of the country’s total premiums. There is still plenty of room for growth in life and general, with the period ahead likely to see more of this potential realised. More specifically, Dubai is moving toward compulsory health insurance, and there are signs that the infrastructure and real estate...

With global Islamic financial assets worth some $1.2trn at the end of 2011 and growth of 150% over the previous five years, Dubai has long been eager to take a bigger share of this rapidly expanding market. Indeed, the emirate has long been home to some of the region’s stand-out Islamic banks and insurers, with its sukuk – Islamic bond – market also of highly prominent international standing....

Since the global crisis in 2008-09, when Dubai’s indexes plummeted and international interest waned, there has been much recovery, and certain sections – such as the commodities and precious metals segments – have boomed. The lessons learnt in this financial test have left the emirate’s exchanges and players stronger, with the fundamentals of this vibrant economy returning to bring on a second...