As the world accelerates its digital transformation, speed, innovation, and resilience are key for the global financial sector.
Few platforms embody this convergence more powerfully than Abu Dhabi Finance Week (ADFW), a global gathering in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, designed to shape both regional and worldwide financial agendas.
This year’s edition aims to “shape regional and global agendas” and is held under the theme of “engineering the capital network”.
Two flagship events during the four-day conference in December will explore these themes: FinTech Abu Dhabi, the MENA region’s largest and most influential FinTech festival, and the Abu Dhabi Sustainable Finance Forum (ADSFF), a leading global platform for sustainability-driven capital. Together, they represent the dual engine of the UAE’s financial future: digital innovation and sustainable finance.
Pairing these two issues, finding solutions, and driving forward the global economy are goals that have become increasingly important. Reducing emissions and improving competitiveness is increasingly important for countries.
With climate summits and governments giving “green capital” greater credence, ADGM has positioned itself as a major player, and Abu Dhabi is perfectly placed to host the conversation and drive the capital needed to make these ideas a reality.
ADGM’s regulatory strength
ADGM’s advantage lies in its clear framework and regulatory strength, allowing global businesses to establish themselves quickly, operate under direct application of English common law, and work with trusted top-tier financial players.
In H1 2025 alone, ADGM issued 1,869 new licences, a 47 per cent increase year-on-year. Assets under management (AUM) in ADGM rose 42 per cent year-on-year in the first half.
AI, FinTech, digital assets, and payments are becoming more prevalent in our daily lives, making this global network of industries increasingly important to invest in and develop. Abu Dhabi has embraced entrants into these markets, providing a clear regulatory framework for players to enter and grow their businesses and ideas.
ADGM has long been involved in virtual assets, cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, and blockchain technology. This growing theme, largely overlooked by institutions for a decade, is now fully mainstream as BlackRock, Fidelity, and others have entered the market.
ADGM’s regulatory sandbox, RegLab, a FinTech and digital sandbox, supports innovation and provides regulatory credibility with a robust Financial Services Regulatory Authority.
FinTech Abu Dhabi
The original ADFW flagship and MENA’s largest fintech festival, Fintech Abu Dhabi, is a prominent platform bringing together tech innovators, banks, developers, entrepreneurs, and investors to shape the future of finance across payments, digital assets, security, and credit.
The event gathers global tech leaders, banks, developers, entrepreneurs, and investors to focus on the future of finance, including key themes such as AI, digital assets and Web3 to explore tokenised luxury, invisible payments, next-gen innovations, and the regulatory challenges of cross-border crypto and digital assets.
As Abu Dhabi solidifies its role as a global fintech capital, Fintech Abu Dhabi 2025 will be the ultimate stage for groundbreaking ideas, strategic partnerships, and transformative investments.
Synergy and future plans
Running on the final day of ADFW, the Abu Dhabi Sustainable Finance Forum (ADSFF) is where capital meets climate ambition. Through in-depth discussions on regulation, awareness, collaboration, and ecosystem development, the forum brings together global leaders to shape the future of green finance.
Throughout the day, issues such as ESG-aligned investment, carbon markets and climate-risk modelling, financing the energy transition and the relationship between economic resilience and sustainability will be discussed.
Abu Dhabi’s position as a hub for sovereign capital and global finance makes it an ideal convener of climate-focused capital flows. ADSFF’s influence continues to grow as “green capital” becomes central to global economic strategy.
This focus on FinTech and sustainability means Abu Dhabi has two lanes of capital growth to work with that reinforce each other and create synergy.