Business & Money | Thursday 26 February, 2015 4:11 pm |

Dubai Forward organised by the Swiss group, Academy & Finance, in partnership with Mashreq Private Banking, welcomed over 200 participants including 100 private bankers, independent asset managers, family offices and corporate service providers from Geneva, Zurich, Luxembourg, Monaco, Malta, Cyprus, Andorra, Slovakia, Panama and the Bahamas; this was testimony to the success and achievement of Dubai Forward’s second edition by bringing together so many who believe in what the emirate has to offer them and their clients in terms of private banking excellence.

Some of the highlights of the conference included key laws that will be enacted in the near future, how Dubai is adapting to international changes and maintaining its place in the competition with other private banking centres, challenges with fiscal transparency, investors’ protection, and distribution of financial products and investment vehicles available for foreign institutional investors.

Given the high quality of the participants and speakers, Dubai Forward, provided international financial and banking professionals the opportunity to evaluate the prospects of starting operations in Dubai by connecting and networking with their local counterparts and more importantly gaining deeper insights through one-on-one understanding of the emirate’s regulatory framework and legal environment by interacting directly with the UAE, Dubai and DIFC authorities.

Speaking after the conference, Pablo Victor Dana, Managing Partner of Heritage Wealth, Dubai, said “From a Chairman's point of view, I saw over 200 professionals during the two day conference- listening, continuously taking notes, asking questions and completely subjugated by the high standards of the "spot-on" presentations. The organizers worked diligently to gather such an incredible array of speakers which coincided with the exceptional offer by Academy & Finance. I spoke with various delegates and sponsors who were all delighted with the calibre of the participants they had met; some of whom were already eager about the next edition of Dubai Forward. Congratulations to Academy & Finance for this achievement!”

“In an evolving environment, a yearly up-date on how to move business in Dubai is very useful and this is exactly what Dubai Forward offers delegates” said one of the participants from a well-known asset management firm in Lugano, Switzerland.