UAE Capital Market Authority Transforms into a Market Engineer to Drive Economic Growth

The UAE’s Capital Market Authority is no longer simply a watchdog of financial markets, but an active enabler of economic activity. Working alongside regulators in the financial free zones of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the CMA is supporting the nation's broader economic development goals, according to its chief executive.

Speaking at the Meira 2026 conference in Dubai on Thursday, Waleed Al Awadhi explained that over the past 18 months, the CMA has undergone a complete overhaul to reposition the UAE—the Arab world’s second-largest economy—as a premier international financial jurisdiction.

“We are not a watchdog any more. We are a market engineer,” Mr Al Awadhi stated. “We support the industry, and we thought it's very important for a good regulator to be part of the economic growth of a country.”

Mr Al Awadhi, who assumed leadership of the CMA in February 2025, noted that reforming the authority was a logical progression given the scale and ambition of the UAE. The CMA oversees capital markets activity outside the financial free zones in the Emirates.

“The first thing that we did, we rewrote our laws and regulations completely,” he noted.

The CMA has implemented its reforms to complement the UAE's key financial free zones, elevating the country's competitiveness alongside global financial hubs such as London, New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi host onshore financial hubs. The Dubai Financial Services Authority regulates the Dubai International Financial Centre, while the Financial Services Regulatory Authority oversees Abu Dhabi’s ADGM.

“The three of us, me, the DFSA and FSRA, we sat together 18 months ago, and we decided to have harmonisation between the three jurisdictions, and this harmonisation, we realised, will lead to strengthening of the economy,” Mr Al Awadhi said.

As the UAE works to diversify its economy away from oil, developing its capital markets and financial sector remains central to its transformation agenda. Regulators have continually updated their frameworks to attract foreign investment and global banking institutions.

In January, the UAE issued two federal decree laws to enhance capital markets regulations and modernise its financial legislation, reinforcing the independence of the CMA and aligning its rules with international frameworks. Furthermore, in April, the CMA introduced a new regulatory framework for virtual asset activities to keep pace with rapid market expansion.

These concerted regulatory and governmental efforts have successfully attracted numerous trillion-dollar asset managers, global banking giants, wealth managers, large family offices, investors, and insurers to ADGM and DIFC.

Mr Al Awadhi highlighted that the UAE benefits from multiple jurisdictions offering a comprehensive suite of products across the entire global investment spectrum. While mainland and free zone jurisdictions share identical rule books and business policies, they differ in their legal systems, employing common law versus civil law jurisdictions.

“What we decided to do together as regulators, [was that] we will adhere to the highest standards of regulations, policy compliance as standard setters globally,” he said.

Demonstrating the resilience of its financial system, the UAE has successfully navigated three major economic tests in recent decades: the global financial crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, and ongoing geopolitical conflicts. Investor confidence has steadily grown with each crisis, reflected in consistent economic activity and capital inflows.

“That's why when we speak to big organisations, they tell us this is a long-term capital investment because we know how your country operates during conflicts, how your country operates during a pandemic, how your country operates during financial crises,” Mr Al Awadhi concluded. “We passed all these complex tests, and we became much stronger than we were before.”