Ahmed Ali al-Sayegh, the head of Abu Dhabi’s international financial centre, said that the Gulf state is planning to establish itself up as a new wealth management hub and also called Switzerland’s old model of private bank secrecy "dead".
In an interview with The Financial Times, he said Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM) intends to elevate the emirate to the ranks of the most influential global institutions, such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the Group of 20 Nations, using Singapore rather than Switzerland as its model.
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"Innovation is coming from this new, emerging market. This is why Asian financial centres are sitting on Basel committees and legislating for the west, because they didn’t make one mistake in 15 years. We have a similar ambition," al-Sayegh said.
According to al-Sayegh, the secrecy model of Swiss private banks is now dead. "The Singaporeans have signed up to a very transparent deal with the world. You are not very smart if you choose to copy a dead model," he said.
AGDM chief adviser Hector Sants said: "There is a fundamental change in terms of how global wealth management services are being delivered. People are having their wealth managed where they personally are: obviously, Abu Dhabi and the Gulf have a lot of natural wealth."
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