Ian Hay Davison, Dealing with Dubai: The regulator’s tale

In 2002 the Dubai authorities announced the appointment of a distinguished chairman to its financial regulator that would give credibility to the country's attempts to establish itself as the leading Arab financial centre. Just two years later he was fired. Now, for the first time, Ian Hay Davison gives a first-hand account of the events that led to his dismissal. In the following linked article, the current chief executive of the DFSA gives his response

JUST BEFORE CHRISTMAS 2001 I was invited to the Rubens Hotel in London’s Buckingham Palace Road for breakfast. My hosts were Claude Smadja, a Swiss journalist and until recently secretary to the famous annual World Economic Forum in Davos, and Habib Mahloujhi, a young British-educated Dubai resident of Iranian extraction. Mahloujhi was then head of knowledge at the executive office of the Crown Prince of Dubai, HH Sheikh Mohammed. They told me of the executive office’s plan to establish a regional financial centre in Dubai.

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