UAE: Dubai

A major international centre for Islamic finance, Dubai has more sukuk (Islamic bond) listings by value than anywhere else in the world. The emirate is also home to Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the oldest – and third-largest – fully fledged Islamic bank. The sector continues to develop rapidly, with local sharia-compliant banks registering...

Dubai’s capital markets are seeing innovation in a range of spheres, witnessing the launch of new fund-based products on its primary exchanges, as well as new types of futures contracts on both Nasdaq Dubai and the emirate’s derivatives-focused exchanges.

Dubai is home to a rapidly developing financial technology sector and several major e-commerce firms, but despite this, the domestic economy remains dominated by cash. As such, the use of electronic payments (e-payments) and e-commerce is underdeveloped, particularly in comparison to other developed markets. However, government and private...

September 2016 saw the approval by the UAE government of a new bankruptcy law, which came into effect at the end of the year. The law supersedes the country’s previous insolvency framework, which was largely laid out in the 1993 Commercial Transactions Code. Critics of the previous framework argued that it was excessively harsh regarding the...