UAE "Leaping to a Digital Financial Hub… Accelerating Infrastructure Innovation Based on AI and Data" [ADFW 2025]

Suehyeon Lee

Summary

The UAE announced a strategy to become a global financial hub through digital financial innovation.
It said an 'innovation bridge' platform linking the government, financial institutions, and technology firms is being built as a core financial infrastructure.
The UAE Central Bank said it is strengthening digital financial competitiveness based on AI and data utilization.

*Paul Kairouz, the UAE Central Bank's Chief Fintech Officer, is speaking at the 'Abu Dhabi Finance Week' event held at the ADQ Arena in Abu Dhabi on the 10th. // Photo=Lee Su-hyun, Bloomingbit reporter*

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has declared its intention to become a global financial hub powered by digital financial innovation. The strategy goes beyond simple improvements to financial services and aims to comprehensively restructure the nation's financial infrastructure to secure competitiveness in the global market.

On the 10th (local time) at the ADQ Arena in Abu Dhabi during 'Abu Dhabi Finance Week (ADFW),' Paul Kairouz, the UAE Central Bank's Chief Fintech Officer, said, "The UAE will become a center where the future of digital finance concentrates."

Kairouz explained that the digitalization projects the UAE is pursuing are already producing visible results in everyday life. He said, "Payment, remittance, and account functions that people use daily are rapidly being reorganized in digital ways," and added, "This signifies a structural transformation of the UAE's financial ecosystem beyond mere efficiency improvements."

He also unveiled plans to build an 'innovation bridge' platform that organically connects the government, financial institutions, and technology companies. The platform is structured to support various financial and technology players in collaborating within a single framework to develop and validate services, and it is seen as a core infrastructure that will elevate the UAE as a global digital finance hub.

Kairouz particularly predicted that capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI) and data utilization will raise the UAE's financial competitiveness to a higher level. He said, "AI will fundamentally redefine the efficiency of financial services," and "a sophisticated data infrastructure enables innovation in regulation, risk management, and personalized services." He added, "The central bank is also strengthening its policy and technology foundations in line with these changes."

The UAE Central Bank plans to continue accelerating the advancement of digital financial infrastructure by expanding joint projects between the private and public sectors. Kairouz said, "Several pilot projects are already underway, and through data-driven policy experiments, we will further solidify the UAE's position in the global financial market."