The Next Wall Street?

The Dubai International Finance Centre, home of the Dubai Stock Exchange.

unprecedented agreement, the DIFC and the prestigious London Business School have created an Executive MBA program housed at the DFIC. Beginning in September 2007, the new dual campus will offer a 16-month MBA program taught by London Business School faculty. Students will have the option to take electives at the Regents Park campus of LBS in the UK.

Dubai International
Financial Exchange

The Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX), DIFC’s wholly-owned stock exchange, has an ambitious goal: To become the world’s leading stock exchange between Western Europe and Asia. Although less than two years old, it is off to a good start. DFIX currently has 19 member banks, including such prominent international powerhouses as Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, EFG-Hermes, HSBC, ING Bank, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered and UBS. DIFX is headed by an experienced CEO, Per Larsson, who was Chairman of the Stockholm Stock Exchange from 1997 to 2003.

In 2006, DIFX’s first full year of operation, the exchange attracted several significant listings, including:

• a $397 million initial public offering (IPO) by Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Hotel Investments, run by Prince Waleed Bin Talal;
• a $370 million IPO by Bahrain’s Al Baraka Banking Group;
• the listing of American Depository Shares by Gold Fields, the first South African company to list in the Middle East;

The UAE seeks to join New York and London as a
global financial center

The United Arab Emirates is rapidly developing into one of the world’s major financial centers. The UAE’s strategic location in relation to the global capital markets of New York, London, and Hong Kong makes it a natural venue for a financial center. As global capital markets move online and operate 24 hours a day, the UAE bridges an important time gap in the global trading system.

The UAE’s goal is to become a world-class financial center for the region: stretching from the western tip of North Africa to the eastern part of South Asia, comprising North and Eastern Africa, the Levant, the Caspian, the Indian Subcontinent and the Arab Gulf States. This region encompasses 2.1 billion people and a combined economy worth $1.8 trillion in terms of GDP, growing at an annual rate in excess of five percent.

Dubai International
Financial Centre

The hub of the country’s financial activity is the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), a 110-acre free zone established in 2004 in the heart of the UAE’s largest city. From its opening day, DIFC has attracted top financial services firms from around the world. DIFC’s incentives give it a unique appeal: zero tax rate on profits, 100 percent foreign ownership, and no restrictions on foreign exchange or repatriation of capital. Over 250 financial institutions have opened offices at DIFC, including most major international banks and financial services firms. Moody’s Investors Service, for example, opened an office in Dubai in April 2007.

Unlike “offshore” tax havens, the DIFC is a full-fledged “onshore” capital market, focusing on several specific financial sectors: Banking Services (investment banking, corporate banking, and private banking); Capital Markets (equity, debt instruments, derivatives and commodity trading); Asset Management and Fund Registration; Insurance and Reinsurance; Islamic Finance; Business Processing Operations and Ancillary Services. A world-class stock exchange, the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX), opened in the DIFC in September 2005.

H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai and Vice-President

and Prime Minister of the UAE, serves as President of the Dubai International Financial Centre. His personal vision has guided DIFC from the beginning:

“In the DIFC, we have set out to create an international financial center to match those of London, New York and Hong Kong, with a regulatory framework built on the best practices found in those leading jurisdictions. Financial institutions have the peace of mind of knowing that, when they locate in the DIFC, their reputations will be safe because the regulations, and the application of those regulations, will be of world-class standards. The DIFC’s guiding principles are integrity, transparency and efficiency.”

Dubai Financial
Services Authority

The DIFC is the first global financial center to establish a world-class regulatory regime from the outset. The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) was established at the same time as DIFC to ensure that the financial center is governed by a regulatory and legal framework based on the best practices of leading jurisdictions in Europe, North America and the Far East.

DFSA’s rules and regulations are written in English by a team of experienced regulators drawn from international regulatory bodies and major financial institutions. They have the responsibility to ensure that DFSA promotes transparent and orderly markets that are not prone to market abuse or systemic risk.

A major part of DIFC’s mission is to provide education and training to Emiratis who wish to pursue careers in the financial sector. In an