A draft law in the United Arab Emirates will see more family-run corporates listing, while pension reforms will create a huge pool of investable assets.

Analysts think that FAB has the best potential platform of any bank in the region. Can its management deliver?

BayanPay, a digital payments company owned by London-listed Finablr, has received regulatory approval to operate its mobile money platform in Saudi Arabia, as the Kingdom looks to a future without cash.

Funding for small and medium-sized businesses remains largely deficient across the Middle East. The region’s economies could grow by a further 1% each year if access to finance improved for SMEs, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director Christine Lagarde said earlier this year.

Perhaps the greatest sign that a merger has been successful is if it motivates others to follow suit. That has certainly been the case with the formation of First Abu Dhabi Bank, the Emirati financial institution which we recognise this year as having effected the best bank transformation across the Middle East.

The UAE’s largest bank is widely considered to have made a success of its merger and is now looking to realize its international potential.

FAB can become more than the sum of its parts, but there's a lot of work to do

Qatar’s financial sector might not be the only one to struggle under a blockade imposed on the country since June by a coalition of Middle Eastern states.

Dana Gas, an Emirati gas company, is using Shariah non-compliance as an argument in its sukuk restructuring talks. That remarkable move, if successful, could undermine the whole system of trust built around Islamic finance in the Middle East.