ADFW

Four days. 50+ partners. 60+ events. $62 trillion in assets represented. 750+ speakers. 300+ sessions. #ADFW2025 concludes after a week that left a lasting mark on Abu Dhabi and the wider region. We set the tone by engineering the capital network, advancing regulatory clarity, and sparking new investment commitments, signalling how regional and global leaders are preparing for the next cycle of growth. It’s where CEOs, Chairpersons, Presidents and Founders of organisations, alongside global leaders, market experts and policymakers, gather under one roof to connect, collaborate, and exchange ideas shaping the future of finance. #ADFW2025 may be closing, but the agenda it set, one of integration, innovation, and true global alignment, is only just beginning to take form.

في هذه المقابلة، يناقش قادة من القطاع المالي كيف أصبح النفوذ المالي أكثر انتشارًا على مستوى العالم، وكيف بدأت مناطق جديدة في ترسيخ حضورها، فيما تحوّلت تقنيات كانت تُعد هامشية في السابق إلى جزء أساسي من التفكير المالي السائد. وخلال الاجتماع السنوي للمنتدى الاقتصادي العالمي في دافوس، سويسرا، تطرّق المتحدثون إلى اندماج الأصول الرقمية مع التمويل التقليدي، وتغيّر موازين الثقل الاقتصادي، وظهور أشكال جديدة من التعاون الإقليمي، مقدّمين رؤى حول كيفية تكيّف المؤسسات مع هذه التحولات وأين قد تتبلور فرص المستقبل. تابعوا هذه المقابلة لاكتشاف ما قد تحمله هذه التحولات لمستقبل النظام المالي العالمي.

In this interview, industry leaders discuss how financial influence is becoming more distributed, new regions are asserting themselves, and technologies once seen as peripheral are now part of mainstream financial thinking. During the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, they examined the integration of digital assets with traditional finance, the changing balance of economic gravity and the rise of new forms of regional cooperation, offering insight into how institutions are adapting and where opportunity may lie in the years ahead. Watch this interview to learn what this shift could mean for the future of the system.

During the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, leaders from across the global financial ecosystem discussed how technology is reshaping finance. Rachel Conlan, GCMO at @binance, highlighted how AI integration across user journeys accelerates financial platforms while making them more responsive to real-world needs. Ronit Ghose, Global Head of Future of Finance at @Citi, focused on finance as an enabler,emphasising how real-time payments transformed domestic markets, with seamless cross-border transactions as the next milestone. Bruno Lanvin, President at the Descartes Institute For the Future (DIFF), brought a longer-term lens, exploring how AI, quantum computing and advanced technologies create both opportunity and complexity. ADFW captured these perspectives, showing finance's future will be defined by technology, but shaped by trust, talent empowerment and human-centered design.

At #ADFW2025, H.E. Dubravka Šuica set out a vision for the next chapter of cooperation between the EU and the Gulf. ​ In her keynote, she underscored that the green transition has become a shared strategic priority, one that demands aligned policy, meaningful investment and long-term partnership.​ She highlighted that the EU and the GCC are entering a new phase of collaboration, with fresh negotiations now underway to build a framework capable of accelerating clean-energy projects, strengthening economic ties and supporting businesses on both sides.​ The path to sustainable growth, as she puts it, will be shaped by regions willing to work side by side, matching technical expertise with political will.

Today’s #ADFW2025 panel ‘SpaceTech for a Planet in Balance’ highlighted that the future of sustainability isn’t only being shaped on Earth. Industry leaders revealed how satellite intelligence, orbital monitoring and space-driven engineering are becoming essential tools for tackling climate risk, managing scarce resources and strengthening global resilience. What stood out most was the shared recognition that space technology is no longer a distant, experimental field; it’s now a practical driver of real-world outcomes like sharper environmental data and entirely new models of collaboration.

Technology has become the engine that enables scale, inclusion and long-term resilience in the Islamic Finance sector. Speakers at ‘Going Digital: Enabling Growth through Islamic Finance Innovation’ revealed how smarter digital infrastructure, new asset models and more agile banking tools are helping Islamic finance serve a broader, more diverse community of users. The conversation pointed to a future where Islamic finance keeps its core principles, but delivers them through systems designed for a faster, more connected world.

At #ADFW2025, Linda Fitz-Alan, Registrar and CEO of ADGM Courts, delivered a keynote that reframed how we think about leadership and inclusion in finance. She highlighted that progress isn’t just about participation. It’s about meaningful impact, balance and shared influence. As finance evolves at the intersection of technology, inclusion and leadership, embracing balance—gender, perspective and responsibility—is not only the right thing to do, but a strategic advantage for institutions and economies alike. The session celebrated women leaders who are shaping the future, not just for themselves, but for the broader financial ecosystem.

At today’s Climate Finance Architect’s Board, held in partnership with the Global Climate Finance Centre (@gcfcentre), we tackled a pressing question: How do we turn climate ambition into deployable capital at scale? In a boardroom-style setting, CEOs, policymakers and senior advisors sat at the same table to focus on the practical levers: regulatory clarity, blended-finance structures, investor confidence, and new models for transition funding. The conclusion? The region has the appetite and the needed to shape how climate projects are financed, built and scaled in the years ahead.

Salem Mohammed Al Darei opened the 8th Abu Dhabi Sustainable Finance Forum (ADSFF) at #ADFW2025. He spoke about Abu Dhabi’s growing role as a global climate-finance hub, where regulation, innovation and investment now move in step. The progress is tangible: stronger ESG frameworks, new transition-finance structures, a broader ecosystem of signatories, and a financial centre attracting thousands of firms and billions in managed assets. The highlight was that real shift happens when capital, talent and climate ambition meet in the same place, and are given the systems, data and governance to create impact.

Day 3 of #ADFW2025 spotlighted Abu Dhabi as a hub for financial innovation, bringing together over 24 MoUs signed with major local and international partners. Fintech Abu Dhabi, the MENA region’s largest fintech gathering, hosted global leaders to explore topics from digital credit and tokenisation to AI adoption and next-gen banking. RESOLVE focused on Courage, featuring keynotes from H.E. Abdullah bin Sultan Al Nuaimi and ADGM Courts’ CEO Linda Fitz-Alan, emphasising Abu Dhabi’s leadership in legal innovation and dispute resolution. Major events like AI Abu Dhabi, Blockchain Abu Dhabi, and Risk 4.0 provided insights into emerging technologies and risk management.

Step into the Executive Lounge, the place to be for the industry’s biggest names at ADFW. It’s where CEOs, Chairpersons, Presidents and Founders of organisations, alongside global leaders, market experts, and policymakers, gather under one roof to connect, collaborate, and exchange ideas. With its premium design, elegant atmosphere, and world-class hospitality, the lounge sponsored by Hanwha, sets the stage for high-level conversations and meaningful moments throughout #ADFW2025.

At #ADFW2025, H.E. Abdullah bin Sultan bin Awad Al Nuaimi, UAE Minister of Justice (@MOJ_UAE), delivered a keynote that spoke to the nation’s legal achievements, and to the conviction with which they have been built. ​ His Excellency noted that the UAE now stands first in the MENA region in the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index for 2025. ​ Reflecting on a judiciary shaped by clarity, transparency and a respect for fairness, one that has evolved from the vision of the nation’s founding leadership into a framework recognised internationally for its rigour and reliability, he affirmed that the UAE is defining how justice should function in the modern age.

At #ADFW2025, Mark Wilson, CEO of RIQ and Board Member at @BlackRock, explored the evolving ecosystem of reinsurance. Wilson reflected on the launch of ADGM’s new consultation paper on solvency rules for insurance and reinsurance, describing them as pragmatic, learning from past missteps while encouraging geographical diversification and innovative investment strategies. Beyond regulations, Wilson highlighted a broader challenge: the reinsurance sector is still weighed down by decades-old legacy systems. For the industry to truly thrive, it must embrace modernisation, leverage technology, and build resilience that matches today’s risks.

At #ADFW2025, Yoni Assia, Co-Founder and CEO of @eToro, emphasized that AI is a powerful tool in the hands of those capable of transforming it into value. What actually drives returns, innovation and momentum, he said, is talent. Reflecting on eToro’s milestone year, its public listing, 20+ billion dollars in customer assets, and continued profitability, Assia highlighted that AI has been threaded into eToro’s every function, not to replace human judgement, but to extend it.

Anthony Soohoo, Chairman and CEO of @MoneyGram , explained what happens when three major forces—AI, stablecoins and embedded finance—begin moving toward one another rather than in parallel. For Soohoo, we are witnessing a structural convergence that will redefine how value moves across borders. The winners, he said, will not be the platforms but the people who use them. Transformative shifts may arrive every decade or so, but this one could fundamentally reset convenience, pricing and access. And this time, the system is bending in favour of the consumer.

As Co-Founder and CEO of @Coinbase, Brian Armstrong has long operated at the fault line where regulation meets innovation. And today, he highlighted why that balance matters more than ever. Armstrong noted that well-designed systems should remove the risks that are truly corrosive like fraud, without suffocating the healthy risks that drive discovery. As he put it, a thousand ideas should be allowed to launch, even if most of them never make it. That is the only way you find the exceptional ones. Speaking at #ADFW2025, he recognised Abu Dhabi and the UAE for setting this equilibrium through clear rules, credible oversight, and the freedom for builders to test, iterate and occasionally fail.

At #ADFW2025, Michael Saylor framed Bitcoin-linked credit as a structural evolution, one that challenges how capital is stored, priced and deployed. In his view, digital credit delivers what traditional instruments have struggled to maintain: yield, stability and institutional-grade architecture without the friction of legacy intermediaries. In an era where monetary systems are being re-examined, digital credit is the next iteration of fixed-income logic.