Power Letters 2023: Arif Amiri, CEO, DIFC Authority

Power Letters 2023: Arif Amiri, CEO, DIFC Authority

For us, the year 2022 has been one of accelerated innovation. We have seen substantial progress in terms of how we shape and regulate the financial sector in Dubai and how we infl uence our counterparts globally by providing innovative regulation and thought leadership in new and exciting spaces. Emerging from 2021, we began to experience some acceleration as globally we started to come out of the pandemic. However, 2022 has been a stepchange year, attracting new businesses and talent to our ecosystem at an unprecedented pace. Our success has come through spearheading fintech and innovation initiatives, evolving our laws and regulations and influencing thinking with counterparts across the world. During last year, the total number of registered companies in DIFC grew from 3,297 to 4,031, a 22 per cent year-on-year increase. DIFC is now home to 1,252 financial and innovation-related companies. In particular, fintech has been a huge growth area for DIFC in 2022. Between January and September, DIFC-based fintech firms secured more than $559m of funding. Our innovative thinking has opened new doors for us, and last year, we established the region’s first Open Finance Lab, which works in collaboration with banks, fintechs, regulators and the industry to