Digital bank Revolut secures key authorization for UAE launch
Digital bank Revolut is launching its services in the UAE after gaining key authorization following a protracted approval process.
The London-based firm said that the UAE’s Central Bank had okayed its application for so-called stored value facilities and retail payment services, Bloomberg reports.
It now plans to build out its local operations before going live. Revolut has been planning to launch since it secured “in-principle” approvals in September last year.
Historically, it has been complex for so-called neobanks to enter the Gulf market, where traditional banks have dominated.
However, since the emergence of homegrown digital banks including Wio, Mashreq Neo and Liv — all tied to major UAE lenders — the market has started to open up.
London-based money transfer company Wise also recently secured approvals, and homegrown Islamic digital finance startup Fasset has been expanding its services.
UAE maps strategy to protect Gulf shipping from renewed threats
UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi offered a glimpse today at how government planners are trying to prevent a repeat of Iran’s chokehold over Gulf shipping. “We want to make our dependency on the Strait of Hormuz close to zero,” Al Zeyoudi said in an interview with Bloomberg.
A key part of the strategy is the emirate of Fujairah, where the government has spent years building infrastructure to bypass the narrow waterway. ADNOC already operates a pipeline that can carry up to 1.5 million barrels of crude a day directly from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah, and is developing a second line that would further increase export capacity.
Al Zeyoudi said the UAE is also investing in rail links, ports and overland trade corridors that can move goods between Asia, the Middle East and Europe without relying on a single maritime route.
The aftermath of the Strait of Hormuz crisis will also be prominent at this week’s Saudi Arabia’s FII Priority Europe conference in Rome.
Opening the formal proceedings on Thursday will be PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who will be joined by Saudi Tourism Minister Ahmed Al-Khateeb, Princess Reema bint Bandar, the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., and a full roster of government officials.
Among European leaders on the schedule are Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Italian Industry Minister Adolfo Urso.
Speakers include Anthony Gutman, Co-CEO of Goldman Sachs International; Andrew Cohen, executive chairman of JPMorgan Chase’s global private bank; Lord Franck Petitgas, Vice Chairman of Blackstone Europe; Sir Noel Quinn, Chairman of Julius Baer; Mohamed Alabbar, founder of Emaar Properties; and Gerard Inzerillo, Group CEO of Diriyah Co.
UAE, European Union see progress in clinching trade deal
The UAE and the European Union are moving closer to a trade agreement that would give the emirates consolidated access to the world’s largest trading bloc while reinforcing the country’s own status as a global logistics hub.
A deal between the UAE and the EU could also be key to unlocking a wider agreement between the 27-member bloc and the Gulf Cooperation Council, a stop-start negotiation which has not yielded consensus in the 35 years since talks started.
Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, met with the EU’s trade chief Maros Sefcovic in Dubai on Wednesday to launch the talks officially over a potential Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, the UAE’s framework for the dozens of trade deals it has made since 2021 to diversify its economy.
During his visit to the emirate, Sefcovic also met with the private sector to discuss opportunities for increased investment flows. The EU currently accounts for $67.6 billion in non-oil trade with the Emirates, 8.3% of the UAE’s total trade.
Speaking to reporters alongside Sefcovic, Al Zeyoudi said the UAE wants to seal a deal with the EU “in a very short period, three to six months from now.”
The Emirati cabinet minister added he did not see the talks as a hurdle for a future EU deal with the GCC and noted that bilateral talks with New Zealand and South Korea had led to trade agreements with the GCC, Reuters reports.
“We are seeing it’s a flow which is going to be starting from here and moving to the GCC,” he said. “Usually, the blocs are much slower than the bilateral, and that’s why we’re starting here, so we can move quickly.”
UAE minister woos Silicon Valley investment firms on U.S. tour
From meeting U.S. policymakers face-to-face in Washington to chatting with OpenAI execs in San Francisco, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade and Talent Attraction Thani Al Zeyoudi says his cross-country tour last week should pay dividends in relationship-building abroad.
Along with a raft of discussions about artificial intelligence “as the defining technology of our era,” Al Zeyoudi’s Silicon Valley sojourn put him in direct contact with a wide gamut of Silicon Valley investment firms, he said on Tuesday in a LinkedIn post.
Those included TPG, Thoma Bravo, Viking Global Investors, Lux Capital, Khosla Ventures, Brave Capital, Audere Capital, Flagship Capital Management, General Catalyst and Mubadala Ventures – which the minister called “sources of capital formation being directed to bleeding-edge technologies shaping the world today.”
He said companies including Flexport, Interos, Lightmatter and Lila Sciences were “keen to explore partnerships with the UAE.”
Reflecting on the SelectUSA Investment Summit in suburban Washington D.C., where he was a keynote speaker, Al Zeyoudi noted his meetings with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy as especially useful in kindling American-Emirati collaboration.
“While we shared non-oil trade of $40 billion in 2023, I believe our nations have only touched the surface of bilateral opportunity,” Al Zeyoudi said. “Sectors such as renewable energy, sustainability, biotechnology, life sciences, finance, and logistics are all ripe for further development.”
Abu Dhabi’s AI-focused energy company AIQ, meanwhile, announced a partnership agreement on Monday with Texas-based Halliburton’s Landmark unit to help expand the use of AI tools in oil and gas production.
