United Arab Emirates’ Financial Authorities Host Crypto Asset and Fintech Forum

The United Arab Emirates Banks Federation (UBF) and the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) hosted a joint forum on crypto assets and fintech, the UAE’s official news outlet Emirates News Agency reported on March 17.

Per the report, the event was held in ADGM in collaboration with the UBF Compliance Committee and aimed to bring together industry specialists to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing fintech and crypto assets.

At the start of the meeting, ADGM also shared its regulatory objectives and the main features of its crypto asset policy and surveillance tools.

Moreover, the overall topics discussed at the forum reportedly ranged from ADGM’s crypto assets regulations and supervisory approach to how banks and financial regulators can jointly develop processes and procedures to ease crypto asset regulatory risks. The report also quotes UBF Chairman Abdul Aziz Al-Ghurair as saying:

“Given the rapid emergence of new FinTech such as cryptocurrencies and other crypto assets, it is essential that we develop frameworks and regulations that govern these technologies and developments.”

Al-Ghurair also noted the local aspiration to become one of the foremost international hubs for finance and how keeping up with the technological change is necessary to achieve this objective.

The UBF is a non-profit organization that represents 50 member banks that operate in the country. ADGM is an international financial center located in the UAE’s capital city.

As Cointelegraph reported in February, the UAE Ministry of Finance also announced that it planned to discuss the development of blockchain and digital assets in the country’s economy at the 7th World Government Summit.During the same month, six commercial banks from Saudi Arabia and the UAE joined a digital currency project after the authorities of both the countries announced an agreement to cooperate on the creation of a cryptocurrency in January.