Today's Edition
SARA ALZAABI (ABU DHABI)
As the UAE accelerates its push towards a digitally driven economy, financial innovation, regulation and education are increasingly converging to shape the country's global role.
Industry leaders speaking to Aletihad highlighted how FinTech, artificial intelligence and academic partnerships are reinforcing the UAE's position as a future-ready financial hub.
Robust FinTech Ecosystem
Jeroen Gillekens, Principal at Kearney, a leading global management consulting firm, said the UAE's FinTech ecosystem stands out because it has successfully aligned investment, incubation and talent.
"Over the past years, the UAE has successfully brought together the key ingredients for a successful FinTech ecosystem," he said, citing a growing base of regional and global investors.
He also pointed to expanding incubation programmes such as Hub71 and the DIFC Innovation Hub, alongside an influx of FinTech founders establishing local operations.
Gilleken noted that digital banking has played a key role in expanding trust and financial inclusion.
"Digital banking is lowering the barriers for any individual to get access to a bank account and basic financial services," he said.
He cited platforms such as Wio, Liv, Careem Pay, e& Money, and du Pay as instrumental in widening access and supporting financial inclusion.
Regarding the UAE's growing role in Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS), he highlighted regulatory leadership and geography.
"The Central Bank has released multiple innovative regulations, such as open finance and instant payments, which provide the right playground for BaaS partnerships," he said.
He added that the UAE's position bridging Europe, Asia, and Africa allows platforms to serve multiple markets from one base.
He also pointed to stablecoins as a strategic opportunity, noting that they have the potential to make payments cheaper, faster, transparent and programmable, noting their relevance for cross-border trade and remittances.
"The UAE is poised to benefit, as it is a major trading hub and the world's second-largest source of outward remittances."
Further, Gilleken said the UAE could help shape global financial standards.
"By pioneering CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) infrastructure, stablecoins and tokenised assets, the UAE can help set practical standards for cross-border digital finance."
AI in Fraud Detection
Artificial intelligence is also transforming how financial crime is detected and prevented.Dickon Johnstone, CEO of Themis, a certified B-Corp and AI pioneer in fighting financial crime, said traditional compliance systems are struggling to keep pace with increasingly complex cyber-enabled crime.
"AI is fundamentally transforming how financial institutions detect and understand illicit financial networks," he said, explaining that machine learning enables institutions to identify hidden relationships across vast datasets.
He added that legacy systems remain limited by speed, context and scalability.
"The real challenge is not a lack of data, but a lack of intelligence," Johnstone said.
"Institutions often drown in information but still lack the insight needed to make confident decisions quickly."
According to Johnstone, financial crime is no longer confined to banks.
"Cyber-driven financial crime has become industrialised," he said.
He warned that sectors such as real estate, e-commerce and professional services are increasingly exposed.
"This is why accessible AI-driven due diligence is critical," he added, noting that advanced tools can help businesses identify beneficial ownership risks before transactions are completed.
As an example, he described Themis' AI Investigator tool as a shift from slow manual reviews to rapid, defensible decision-making.
"What once took weeks can now be completed in minutes," he said.
"This transforms compliance from a cost centre into a strategic advantage."
Education
Education is emerging as another pillar of Abu Dhabi's financial ecosystem.
Speaking to Aletihad, Mark Mortensen, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD and Associate Dean for its Middle East campus, said recent events reflect the growing integration of education into the emirate's economic strategy.
He noted that INSEAD partnered with ADGM Academy to share faculty insights.
The expanded partnership includes new scholarships for Emiratis and a dedicated programme on family business and family ventures.
On how AI is reshaping leadership and work, Mortensen noted that AI is radically changing the landscape, not only in how the work is carried out but also how work design and organisations are designed. This shift raises questions about skills, learning, and future career paths.
At INSEAD, the focus is "not just how do you optimise, how do you speed up a particular task, but what does that do for rethinking the way in which we design and build our organisations," including financial institutions and professional services firms, he said.
Abu Dhabi, he said, is increasingly where graduates want to build those careers: "There is no question, this is the place people want to be," adding that "every one of our programmes offers the opportunity to spend time here in Abu Dhabi," and many students choose to stay.
For Mortensen, long-term success depends on deep collaboration between academia, business and government.
"We need to make sure that academia and education is closely tied to the real practical business world," he said, stressing that "the academics are able to bring the research and the science.
Companies on the ground are bringing the data, the experience, and the government is bringing the ability to create that ecosystem, the regulatory environments, and the frameworks."
