UAE Capital Market Authority Shifts Stance Toward Market Engineering and Regulatory Harmonisation

The UAE's Capital Market Authority (CMA) has transitioned from serving strictly as a regulatory watchdog into an economic enabler designed to support national development goals, according to chief executive Waleed Al Awadhi. Speaking on Thursday at the Meira 2026 conference in Dubai, Al Awadhi stated, "We are not a watchdog anymore. We are a market engineer," adding that a strong regulator must actively contribute to economic growth, The National reported.

Al Awadhi, who assumed leadership of the CMA in February 2025, noted that the authority has executed a comprehensive overhaul over the past 18 months. A central element of this reform involved completely rewriting the authority's laws and regulations to reposition the UAE as a leading international financial jurisdiction, reflecting the country's economic scale and ambitions.

The CMA, which oversees capital markets activity outside the UAE's financial free zones, is harmonising its regulatory framework with onshore free zone regulators. These include the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), which oversees the Dubai International Financial Centre, and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), which regulates Abu Dhabi Global Market on Al Maryah Island. The effort aims to strengthen the UAE's ability to compete with global centres such as London, New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

The overhaul follows legislative updates enacted earlier in the year. In January, the UAE issued two federal decree laws aimed at modernising financial legislation, strengthening capital markets rules, and enhancing the CMA's independence. In April, the regulator also introduced a dedicated regulatory framework for virtual asset activities to keep pace with market expansion.