Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has released its sixth Future of Finance Report, “Next-Generation Financial Cities: New models for attracting global capital”, arguing that emerging financial hubs are using new approaches to governance, regulation, lifestyle, and talent to compete with and, in some cases, outpace established centres such as New York, London, and Hong Kong. It also projects that global finance will increasingly be shaped by a distributed network of interconnected hubs, each contributing distinct strengths. The report identifies four qualities underpinning hub competitiveness: talent, financial infrastructure and adaptability, regulation and governance, and connectivity. It highlights Dubai’s use of a Common Law framework through DIFC and tailored financial market regulations, and cites DIFC metrics including over 8,000 active registered companies, more than 1,000 regulated entities, and over 1,500 FinTech, AI, and innovation firms that have raised over USD 4.2 billion in investment. Interview material included in the report references Dubai’s Global Financial Centres Index score rising from 570 in 2005 to 748 in the latest edition, placing it just outside the global top ten, and points to quality-of-life considerations and collaboration on FinTech standards, cross-border data flows, and climate finance as factors shaping how established and emerging centres engage.

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