Welcome to Abu Dhabi Finance Week 2025

Please join us for this opening address by the CEO of the Mubadala Investment Company, setting the stage for a week of global dialogue, investment insight and economic collaboration.

Remarks from the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development

Please join us for remarks on the Falcon Economy from the Undersecretary of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, as we kick of ADFW by setting the stage for a week of global dialogue, investment insight and economic collaboration.

An Update on the Falcon Economy

This presentation provides a comprehensive overview of the Falcon Economy’s trajectory, assessing macroeconomic performance, investment trends, and policy reforms driving diversification. It highlights opportunities and challenges in fostering sustainable growth, strengthening global competitiveness, and advancing Abu Dhabi’s vision as a leading hub for innovation, finance, and economic resilience.

Champions of the Falcon Economy, with ADX

This special segment will showcase the investment thesis and growth strategies of several listed industrial champions as they shape Abu Dhabi’s economic future.

Abu Dhabi: Metropolis of the Future

Explore the many facets shaping the urban vision driving the rapid emergence of Abu Dhabi on the global stage. From infrastructure, to culture, liveability, and its strategy of placing artificial intelligence at the core of its economic transformation.

The Story of Our Journey in Abu Dhabi

In this market case study, hedge fund Brevan Howard shares its journey into Abu Dhabi. From early engagement with ADGM to key inflection points in its expansion, this session highlights the emirate’s appeal as a long-term partner and growth market for global investors.

The Global Outlook, with the IMF

The IMF presents its latest view on the world economy, highlighting shifting growth prospects, policy challenges, and the risks that demand attention. This outlook sets the tone for understanding how global trends may influence markets in 2026.

Global Business at a Crossroads: Opportunities & Risks (in Partnership with F.A.B.)

As geopolitics, capital flows, and new technologies redefine global commerce, this session brings together leading CEOs to explore opportunities, systemic risks, and the strategies driving resilience and reinvention in today’s economy.

In Conversation with His Excellency Mohamed Al Shorafa

In this interview, the Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Municipalities & Transport discusses Abu Dhabi’s next-generation urban mobility strategy, integrating sustainable infrastructure with smart city and multi-modal transport systems. He will outline how the Emirate is leveraging public-private partnerships, digital innovation, and green policy to optimise liveability, streamline municipal services, and accelerate economic diversification.

Growth Capital in the AI Era: Empowering Founders, Building National Champions

The session explores how the UAE’s next phase of economic growth is being driven by visionary founders, entrepreneurs, and young talents shaping innovation in the age of artificial intelligence. It highlights the role of the Emirates Growth Fund in bridging the “missing middle” and enabling growth capital that empowers purpose-driven businesses to scale into national champions. Anchored in the nation’s leadership vision and Operation 300bn, the speech will underscore how talent, innovation, and AI-driven transformation are key to building a resilient, diversified, and future-ready UAE economy.

Engineering the UAE's Role in Global Trade

With trade at the heart of the UAE's globally strategic position, this special address explores how diversification, digitalisation, and partnerships are redefining the nation's place in global supply chain and commerce.

Engineering the Capital Network

Welcome to His Highness & National Anthem

ADFW Opening Address: Engineering the Capital Network

ADFW Opening Ceremony

The ADFW Agenda Guide

This essential briefing will walk you through the key sessions, big-name speakers and headline topics shaping the ADFW stage agenda. From can’t-miss keynotes to the most talked-about panels, this is your guide to navigating the week ahead and getting the most out of every moment.

Welcome to the 2025 Global Markets Summit, with HSBC

A warm welcome to the 2025 ADFW Global Markets Summit from HSBC. Join us as we analyse trade, macro-economics, systemic market risks & opportunities for humanity.

The Eastern Bridge

Join the Chief Global Officer of South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Life, as he commentates on the thriving and growing economic bridge between Abu Dhabi and South Korea.

Announcement: The 2025 Global Financial Centre Competitiveness Index

Unveiling the landmark New York University Global Financial Centre Competitiveness Index, a new initiative driving research and dialogue on global competitiveness, and outlining the realities of the world economic order.

The Perspective of Jamie Dimon

[VIRTUAL APPEARANCE] Hear from Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, one of the most respected voices in global finance, as he shares his perspective on leadership, talent and building resilient institutions. From strategy, culture and people to how financial institutions can stay agile in the face of economic uncertainty and evolving workforce expectations.

How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle

One of the world’s most influential investors deciphers the long-term forces that push nations toward strength or decline. Expect a candid take on debt, currency power, and the recurring cycles that signal whether economies endure or unravel.

The Quick Take: Geopolitics in Real Time

Cut through the noise in this sharp geopolitical address on the forces reshaping global markets. From shifting power dynamics and economic rivalries to the policy decisions that could tip the balance, PGIM will outline the key risks - and opportunities - that matter most to investors right now.

Investing For Humanity

A fireside exchange with one of the world’s foremost business icons and philanthropists explores how capital, science, and collaboration can confront urgent global challenges. From rethinking food systems to advancing healthcare solutions, it highlights the responsibility and opportunity in investing for humanity.

Investing for Humanity: High-Level Announcement

Please stay tuned for more details about this session soon

The ADFW Boardroom 2025: The State of the Global Economy

A powerhouse panel takes on the realities of today’s global economy. From shifting growth patterns to systemic risks and market resilience, this session delivers clear perspectives on where opportunity lies and how the financial order is evolving.

Decoding Critical World Issues, with ADQ

From geopolitics to global trade, this session uncovers the forces driving economies and societies today. Expect fresh perspectives that connect markets to real-world challenges, offering clarity on how critical issues will influence investment, growth, and global cooperation.

Trade, Tech & Geo-Economics: Global Risks on the Rise

As technology, trade, and geopolitics collide, new risks are testing global markets. This session examines fault lines from supply chains to digital currencies, asking how investors and institutions can prepare for a world where disruption is the new constant.

The Power & Potential of the Global South

The Global South, a range of diverse and rapidly growing economies, is the defining growth location of the next 100 years. Showcasing new and decisive roles in finance and trade, this discussion spotlights the opportunities and challenges that will define the rise of the Global South as a force in the next phase of world economic order.

Connecting Capital to Global Impact

The challenges of the 21st Century present one of the greatest opportunities in Capital Markets through technology, infrastructure, and next generation ethical finance. Jason Barsema will unpack the trillions of capital required to fund these initiatives, and present the ecosystem being born in ADGM to deliver the future of finance

New Energy Finance, with CNBC: Opening Remarks

The Reality of Renewables in an AI World

The explosive growth of artificial intelligence is transforming the global energy and infrastructure landscape, driving a massive reallocation of capital as companies race to build the power and data center capacity to sustain it. A new era of collaboration is emerging between energy majors, developers, and technology leaders to deliver the clean, always-on power needed for the next wave of AI innovation. CNBC examines how energy and tech players are positioning themselves in this rapidly shifting reality.

Who’s Funding the New Energy Order

Global capital is moving to back the infrastructure of the future. Sovereign wealth funds, infrastructure private equity giants, and venture-backed disruptors are redrawing the map of energy finance as trillions flow into clean energy and AI infrastructure. As the race to fund the AI economy intensifies, questions of ROI, risk, and who ultimately controls this new energy-and-compute order are coming to the forefront. CNBC explores the capital strategies shaping the transition and how the world will power this historic shift.

Building the UAE’s New Energy Economy

As the global race for AI dominance accelerates, the UAE is positioning itself as a future-proof hub where energy security meets technological ambition. This session explores how the UAE is leveraging its unique energy mix—solar, nuclear, and gas—to power the next generation of AI infrastructure, including mega-projects like Stargate UAE. We’ll examine the country’s strategic pivot from hydrocarbons to high-tech, the role of the Ministry of Energy in enabling AI growth, and how energy sovereignty is becoming a new axis of global competitiveness. From cooling costs in extreme climates to the evolving role of oil and gas in a renewables-first world, this conversation will unpack how the UAE is building the backbone of the chip economy.

Bridging Knowledge & Building the Nation

ADGM Academy proudly celebrates Bridging Knowledge & Building the Nation, marking another milestone in its journey of empowering professionals and shaping the future workforce. Over the past seven years, the Academy has continued to showcase exceptional talent, providing world-class education and transformative learning experiences that drive growth and success. As ADGM Academy celebrates this remarkable achievement, showcasing the academy talents it reaffirms its commitment to upskilling individuals, nurturing UAE Nationals, and fostering sustainable career development strengthening its reputation as a leading hub for knowledge and talent.

UBS Investor Forum

Further Network Summit

The Greenwich Economic Forum, Middle East

CEO Global Growth Forum by ADQ Leap

Private Wealth Dialogues with ADIO

The Abu Dhabi Finance Week 2025 Opening Night (Invite-Only)

The opening ceremony will feature an exclusive guest list of top global financial leaders and Abu Dhabi’s economic visionaries. Kicking off the third edition of ADFW, this prestigious event will set the tone for a week filled with important conversations that will lead the way for finance and investment in the region.

Welcome to ADGM. The Path To Forward.

The CEO of FSRA at ADGM sets the tone for Asset Abu Dhabi, highlighting how asset management, global capital flows, and strategic innovation will shape the path to forward.

Connecting Capital with Opportunity, with ADCB

At the heart of global capital markets lies Abu Dhabi’s ability to connect investors, businesses, and communities to long-term opportunities. This keynote reflects on the future of financial intermediation, from mobilising private capital and institutional flows to sustaining liquidity and market confidence, offering a lens on how financial institutions can anchor growth in a world of shifting cycles.

Situational Awareness: The 5 Years Ahead

Some of the most senior figures in global investing share how they read signals, manage risk, and position for advantage in an uncertain world. Expect candid insights on market cycles, technology shifts, and the moves that could define the next five years.

The Evolving Art of Hedge Funds

Billion-dollar bets and precise risk management keep hedge funds at the sharp edge of finance. With industry AUM now past $4 trillion, what risks are worth taking, and how do the masters of the trade turn volatility into opportunity?

Innovation: The Ultimate Asset

In markets where ideas outrun capital, is innovation the currency of lasting power? Today’s visionaries are transforming ambitious concepts into bankable realities. The question remains: where will the next breakthrough rise, and who will rise with it?

Capital at a Crossroads: Why Private Markets Matter More Than Ever

Private markets continue to power the ideas, companies, and leaders driving the global economy forward. Join Carlyle’s Harvey Schwartz and David Rubenstein for a conversation on how the evolution of capital and leadership is unlocking new potential in 2026 and beyond.

What Endures When Markets Shift

[VIRTUAL] A reflection from one of the world’s most influential investors, offering a perspective that looks beyond predictions to permanence. Against a backdrop of changing rates, shifting liquidity, and artificial intelligence rewriting productivity itself, Steve Schwarzman shares how discipline, scale, and innovation remain the quiet constants of enduring firms and resilient economies.

Capital, Conviction & Transformation: Investing for the Next Generation

Every society is built twice: first in imagination, then in concrete and capital. From rising cities to enduring communities, global investment leaders reveal how today’s choices are shaping the world the next generation will inherit.

Where Smart Money Moves Next

Markets never stand still, and neither does smart capital. This session dissects how institutional flows are adjusting to interest rates, sustainability priorities, and geopolitical shifts. Where will tomorrow’s most decisive bets land, and who will seize them first?

Private Markets in the Next Cycle: The Reconfiguration of the Economy

The session highlights how the next generation of technology leads to an accelerating economic transformation across industries, reshaping winning business models and redistributing profit pools. The rise of tech-driven cross-sector leaders will define a new business landscape. This “Brave New World” commands a thematic and transformational investment approach to succeed.

The Trader: In Conversation with Dmitry Balyasny

Step inside the mind of one of the world’s leading multi-strategy traders, and the mastermind behind a $30 billion AUM hedge fund titan. A candid look at how instinct, discipline, and data shape the art of seizing opportunities before they surface on the global radar.

The Great Wealth Transfer

An estimated $84 trillion is set to change hands globally by 2045, redrawing the map of influence and opportunity. This discussion looks at the forces driving this historic shift, the barriers slowing it, and the impact it will have on global wealth.

Surveying the Landscape of Real Estate

With global values topping $300 trillion, real estate is the canvas of ambition. In this discussion, visionaries explore how the skylines and neighbourhood hubs of today will stand as the landmarks of tomorrow.

Strategies, Risks & Opportunities: The Outlook to 2026 Markets

As rates shift, innovation races ahead, and geopolitics reset the stage, will 2026 be a bull’s charge or a bear’s retreat? Top market minds chart the risks to dodge and the opportunities waiting to unfold.

Optimizing Allocation: Strategic Frameworks for Institutional Investors

Join institutional titans as they unveil the sophisticated strategies they employ to calibrate asset allocations for long-term resilience and growth. This session examines dynamic allocation models, partnership strategies and frameworks, liquidity-risk trade-offs, and diversification across alternative asset classes, offering practical frameworks for institutional allocators to enhance portfolio robustness and capture emerging opportunities.

Bridging Sovereign Capital: Unlocking Gulf-Asia Private Market Potential

Sovereign capital is rewriting the investment map between the Gulf and Asia, fuelling partnerships in technology, infrastructure and next-generation industries. Hear how major players are steering this powerful flow of capital and reshaping both region’s investment stories.

Liquidity, Leverage and the Changing Market Order

As liquidity tightens and leverage comes under scrutiny, this session examines how banks and market-makers are recalibrating balance sheets and capital structures to adapt to a more disciplined market order.

Private Capital as the New Public Market

As public listings dwindle, private capital rises as the arena of choice for growth and diversification. This session explores the expanding deal flow, the boom in secondaries, and how GP stakes are opening new gateways to liquidity and long-term value.

Champions of the Falcon Economy, with ADX

This special segment will showcase the investment thesis and growth strategies of several listed industrial champions as they shape Abu Dhabi’s economic future.

Deals, Value and Growth Strategy: The Evolution of Private Equity

Global private equity assets surged to $10.8 trillion in 2024, marking an 11.6% year‑on‑year gain. As fundraising slows and dry powder ages, the future lies in creative value creation, disciplined deal cycles, and strategic exit timing.

Inside Today's Art Market

Where passion meets precision, today’s art market is a world of bold collectors, shifting tastes and soaring valuations. This presentation from one of the leading global art advisors will peel back the canvas on collecting, revealing the opportunities and benefits that come with engaging with this complex asset class.

The Valuable Art of Collecting

From masterpieces to marketplaces, art, rare watches, handbags and collectible cars are redefining the space where passion meets portfolio. Discover how scarcity, shifting tastes and a new wave of buyers are transforming these objects into enduring stores of wealth.

The Anatomy of a Great Deal

What turns a promising transaction into a market-defining success? Top dealmakers reveal how they source opportunities, structure terms, align stakeholders, and navigate risk to create deals that deliver lasting value and leave competitors wishing they’d moved first.

Digital Assets Graduation to the Institutional Mainstream

Digital assets are moving from the margins to the mainstream, reshaping capital flows, speed and institutional strategy. In this discussion, leaders explore how tokenization, regulation and adoption are redefining trust, liquidity and market architecture in the next era of global finance.

Innovations & Strategies in Private Markets

Private markets are evolving fast, blurring the lines between credit, equity, and hybrid capital. This session explores the innovations redefining access, liquidity, and structure, from bespoke financing and secondaries to the next generation of private credit strategies powering growth.

Multiplying Platform Power: Inside the World of GP Stakes

Explore how GP stakes investments strengthen private market platforms by unlocking durable revenues, expansion capital, and strategic capabilities. This session reveals how minority partnerships accelerate growth, enhance governance, and create long-term alignment between investors and managers. Gain insight into the forces shaping one of the fastest-growing segments of global private markets.

Welcome to the 2025 International Family Office Congress

Welcome Remarks of the 3rd International Family Office Congress will set the stage for insightful, high-level discussions on wealth stewardship, innovation, and the future of multi-generational capital management.

Opening Address, with the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce & Industry

International Family Office Congress' Opening Address will underscore Abu Dhabi’s vision to foster family business resilience, cross-border collaboration and a stronger ecosystem for generational wealth creation. The address will highlight Abu Dhabi’s growing role as a global hub for family offices, setting the stage for a congress that bridges tradition with modern opportunities.

The UAE’s Modern Formula for SME Growth and Entrepreneurial Success

Every national champion begins with a founder. This keynote explores how the Emirates Growth Fund (EGF)empowers UAE-based SME founders in the missing middle to scale sustainably, drive innovation and build enduring enterprises that strengthen the nation’s economic foundation. It highlights how growth capital, beyond just financing, builds capability, resilience and scale — the UAE’s modern formula for entrepreneurial success and the creation of homegrown national champions shaping the country’s future

ADGM Academy Presents: A Fireside Chat with Ray Dalio

Ray Dalio will share firsthand insights on today’s market landscape, his commitment to education, the Dalio Markets Principles Programme, and the strategic partnership with ADGM Academy — a collaboration dedicated to developing talent in wealth and asset management across the region.

Driven by Desire: Turning Cars into Portfolio Value

This talk will reveal how passion investments like the ultra rare 1955 Mercedes Benz 300 SLR can deliver extraordinary portfolio value, selling for an astonishing $140 million, blending heritage, rarity, and investment upside

2026 in Focus: Where Optimism Meets Uncertainty

What will spark the next wave of growth and market leadership, and what risks could hold it back? This keynote explores where momentum could build across asset classes and which pressures may challenge the outlook.

Wealth in Motion: Navigating the Great Wealth Transfer

As the historic wealth transfer accelerates, this transformative era is reshaping wealth creation and inheritance. This session will examine the challenges and opportunities global families face across generations, and continents, and highlight how global connectivity fosters collaboration, innovation, and avenues to build lasting legacies in a rapidly evolving world.

The Risk Playbook: Investing in Volatile Markets

Global affairs, family relocations, market volatility and succession gaps. What are top family offices doing today to weather tomorrow?

Mapping Asset Allocation: Making Sense of Modern Portfolios

Modern family office portfolios are being redefined. Across regions, allocations now span public equities, fixed income, private equity, real estate, alternatives, and an increasing share toward digital assets. This session explores the strategies and regional tilts defining today’s family office investment environment.

In Spotlight: Abu Dhabi Family Business Stories

Get a close look at how Abu Dhabi’s family enterprises power growth, diversification, and exports. The discussion spotlights how ADFBC helps families scale, access capital and markets, adopt innovation, and build regional platforms that create jobs and deepen supply chains. Clear takeaways on momentum, partnership, and impact.

The New Age of Investing for Impact

This session explores how impact investing is reshaping the meaning of purpose. It highlights how a new age of wealth stewards are directing capital toward education, healthcare, and sustainability—creating lasting impact and generational legacy.

The Master Investor: In Conversation

Join us as we sit down with Jim Mellon, one of UK’s most well-known businessman, investor and philanthropist. Jim will share stories from his journey, views on where the big opportunities are coming from, and lessons on building value that lasts across generations.

The $100 Trillion Question: Are Families Ready for the Generational Shift?

Projections show that wealth transferred by 2048 will total $124 trillion. As trillions shift hands across generations, family offices must prepare for a new era of wealth, governance, and values. This session brings regional insights from North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific on how families are managing this unprecedented transfer.

Culture, Capital and Creativity: The Guggenheim Legacy

This session explores how leadership, strategic capital, and creative vision intersect to build one of the world’s most influential cultural institutions, sustaining a family legacy that fosters innovation and lasting cultural impact.

What Is The Expiry Date on Humans in Wealth Management?

Even as AI continues to transform the wealth management landscape, human relationships continue to remain vital, allowing personal advisors to provide tailored services at scale. But will we ever reach a point where AI provides everything investors need, and the human advisor becomes obsolete? This session explores the steps professionals need to take to stay relevant as AI becomes an ever greater part of the industry

Welcome to The ALTS Forum

Welcome to The ALTS Forum, a focus on how capital is evolving, from venture creation to global asset allocation. As private and public markets converge, investors, founders and asset owners unite to explore where conviction, innovation and long-term value will come from next.

Patient Capital in an Impatient World: Backing the Builders of Tomorrow

Venture capital has long been associated with speed. Rapid rounds, fast scaling, and quick exits. But the market is shifting, and long-term value creation is back in focus. This fireside explores the future of venture investing: what sustainable growth really looks like, how partnerships with founders are evolving, and why the next decade of venture may be defined less by velocity and more by resilience and responsibility.

The Data Era: Industry Transformations in a New Digital Era

The financial industry has long relied on instinct, networks and narrative but a new era is emerging, driven by data, algorithms and global intelligence. In this keynote, explore how data and AI have the potential to dramatically change the way we operate. As AI helps us unlock new patterns and the volume of data explodes, how should leaders ensure their organizations are prepared to ingest and utilize this information and create new opportunities?

The Next Wave: An Honest Conversation

Two influential voices in private markets explore how the nature of capital is changing. From multi-strategy, global firms to the rise of nimble entrepreneurial vehicles, investors are redefining their strategies amid shifting global flows, rising rates and new partnership models. What does the future of private capital look like and where will it be deployed next?

The Global Silicon Valley: What It Takes to Win Outside the US

What does it take to build global growth? This panel explores all from regulatory navigation to talent migration and local capital flow, delving into the unique challenges, strategies and opportunities of scaling tech ecosystems beyond Silicon Valley’s shadow. Revealing what it really takes to build globally competitive companies from the ground up.

Tigers & Falcons: The Opportunity of the Asia GCC Coridoor

As Asia’s innovation economies meet the Gulf’s capital strength, a powerful new investment corridor is taking shape. This session explores how cross-border partnerships, sovereign strategies and emerging market momentum are unlocking the next wave of growth between East and Gulf. Together, these “tigers and falcons” are defining a new era of cross-border growth grounded in shared ambition and accelerating capital mobility.

From Capital Calls to Market Access: Financing Innovation Without Friction

A new era of capital formation is emerging, one defined by continuous liquidity, tokenised assets and on-demand growth capital. This session brings together the pioneers building the next generation of financial market infrastructure, bridging the gap between private and public capital and creating “firsts” that will shape how innovation is financed in the decade ahead.

Alts Prime Time: Why the Macroeconomy is Powering a New Playbook

Investing is no longer just about harvesting returns, it’s about building value that lasts. In this high-level discussion, leading voices from global GPs, LPs and advisory platforms explore how long-term capital, operational excellence, and strategic partnerships are redefining what success looks like. From ESG integration to navigating today’s macro headwinds, this panel sheds light on how the private equity model is evolving for the next era of growth.

Sustainable Growth: Inside the Institutional Pivot to Long-Term Value

From inflation to interest rates, today’s macro shifts are rewriting the private equity playbook and opening one of the most attractive investment windows in years. In this fireside, global and regional leaders explore how tighter capital, asset repricing, and shifting risk appetites are reshaping the market — driving longer holds, smarter structuring, and more disciplined exits. Is this the comeback of patient capital, or the start of a fundamentally new model?

Debt Is the New Equity: Rethinking Growth Finance for a High-Rate World

As capital becomes more cautious and valuations reset, entrepreneurs and investors are increasingly turning to non-dilutive growth capital, from mezzanine and convertible structures to fintech-enabled credit and tokenised debt. This session explores the rebalancing of the capital stack: how private lenders, structured credit investors and alternative platforms are enabling scale without sacrificing control. In a world where equity is expensive, debt is strategic and the smartest capital isn't always the loudest.

New Asset Classes, Real Returns: Where Investment is Delivering

This panel explores emerging investment opportunities in venture capital, highlighting sectors and strategies that are generating real, sustainable returns. With cycles resetting and trust being rebuilt, the conversation will spotlight the signals that serious capital is watching - from infrastructure bets to the next breakout use case. Experts will discuss how to identify promising asset classes amid evolving market dynamics and investor expectations.

The Investor-Partner Divide: Rethinking Support Beyond Funding

Founders no longer want 'just capital' they need investors who can open doors, navigate regulation and help them scale with discipline. In this candid conversation, explore how the venture–operator relationship has changed, where it often breaks down and what founders now expect from their investors if they’re going to win in tighter, more competitive markets.

Founders on the Frontline: Hard Lessons in Capital and Growth

Behind every headline success is a founder who’s navigated brutal pivots, tough cap tables and the sharp end of scale. This candid session brings together current CEOs, builders turned backers and entrepreneurs who’ve raised, exited and now invest themselves, to share what they got wrong, what they’d do differently and what founders today need to understand about the evolving rules of capital. From early-stage resilience to growth-stage reality checks, it’s a no-fluff conversation on leadership, liquidity and learning the hard way.

Welcome to the Infrastructure Summit 2025

A warm welcome to the inaugural edition of the Infrastructure Summit, setting the tone for a transformative dialogue. The EMCEE will introduce the vision and themes shaping Abu Dhabi’s next chapter as a global hub for sustainable, future-ready infrastructure.

Abu Dhabi’s Urban Masterplan

As Abu Dhabi evolves into one of the world’s most forward-looking cities, the Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT) plays a central role in charting its physical and social landscape. In this fireside chat, the Acting Director General of the Urban Planning & Permits Center unveils how the roadmap for Abu Dhabi’s next chapter is being defined by liveability, innovation, and resilience.

A Masterclass in Infrastructure Investment

Inside Mubadala's Infrastructure Strategy

Gain an insider’s perspective on Mubadala’s approach to building world-class infrastructure across energy, transport, and digital infrastructure. Explore how long-term thinking, global diversification, and global impact converge in one of the world’s most dynamic investment portfolios, while generating strong, sustainable returns for Abu Dhabi.

Champions of the Falcon Economy, with ADX

This special segment will showcase the investment thesis and growth strategies of several listed industrial champions as they shape Abu Dhabi’s economic future.

Building for the AI Era

As AI reshapes industries, the demands on connectivity, data centers, energy systems and smart networks are evolving rapidly. This session will bring leading digital infrastructure investors and data center operators to discuss how strategic investments and next-generation technologies are enabling scalable, resilient, and future-ready infrastructure for the AI era.

Real Estate, Real Returns

From residential and commercial yields to cross-border market trends and urban planning policies, multiple factors are shaping the global property sector. Join this panel to explore what’s driving investor concerns, uncover emerging opportunities, and understand the key forces influencing real estate markets worldwide.

Abu Dhabi & the Global Grid

As the world rewires through new energy, trade, and digital corridors, Abu Dhabi stands at the crossroads of the Global Grid, channeling capital, infrastructure, and innovation to connect economies, power growth, and shape the next era of global connectivity.

The Next Year in Infrastructure: A CEO's View

As markets recalibrate and governments double down on transition investments, Allianz Global Investors’ CEO Tobias Pross shares his perspective on the year ahead in infrastructure, where capital is moving, risks are shifting, and new opportunities are emerging worldwide.

Harnessing Private Capital for Public Infrastructure Growth

Governments in the region and around the world are looking to private capital to play a role to deliver much needed public infrastructure to close the infrastructure gap. Hear how public-private partnership models are being used to deliver outstanding outcomes for governments and providing investors with long-term, high-quality investment opportunities.

Welcome & Introductory Remarks

Welcome remarks by AIMA open the inaugural Private Credit Summit at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, uniting the world’s leading asset managers, investors, and policymakers to shape the future of private credit

Financing the Economy: 2025 Research Launch

Official launch of Financing the Economy 2025 – exclusive insights from the latest edition of this industry bellwether research series on the growth of the global private credit industry.

In Conversation – Private Credit Financial Stability and Economic Resilience

A focused dialogue between industry leaders and regulators on the findings from Financing the Economy 2025, exploring their implications for financial stability and economic resilience at a pivotal moment for global markets.

CIO Panel: Private Credit vs. Everything – Allocation Priorities in 2026

A candid look at CIO priorities for 2026, weighing the value of private credit against Investment Grade and High Yield markets, lessons from 2025 on performance dispersion and defaults and how redemptions and re-ups are shaping allocation decisions.

Financing the Next Generation of Infrastructure

Leaders explore how capital is being mobilised for the next wave of energy, digital and transport infrastructure, appetite for thematic and regional mandates alongside the catalytic role of sovereign funds, DFIs and blended finance in this market.

Asset-Based Lending (ABL) – How Far Can Private Credit Stretch in this Market?

Exploring the emergence of ABL as a growth engine for private credit. This session will cover deal sourcing, relative value for investors, and where opportunities in asset-backed private credit remain untapped.

Private Credit Megatrends

This panel explores the structural forces redefining private credit: including rising public and private debt burdens, the retailisation of private markets, and the transformative influence of AI on both the economy and the financial sector.

The Evolving Line Between Syndicated and Direct Lending

As syndicated and direct lending increasingly converge, market participants face new dynamics in liquidity, transparency, and pricing. This shift is also redefining underwriting discipline, regulatory scrutiny, and long-term investor allocation strategies across private credit markets.

Closing Remarks

UBS Investor Forum

Global Financial Regulators Summit

Transformation of the Global Financial Landscape

The global financial landscape is experiencing a historic moment, where market fundamentals are being tested and new elements are reshaping the flow of capital. Understanding the potential implications of the forces transforming the global financial architecture is crucial for policymakers, regulators, and market participants alike to effectively navigate this evolving environment. A shifting global financial landscape carries substantial implications for financial centers, both established and emerging. Fintech and technological advances are not only redefining the nature of financial services, but also the scope and location of the requisite ecosystems they foster. Accordingly, understanding the needs of future financial systems and capital markets, including the size and direction of financial flows, is critical to determine the strategies governing the adjustment of existing financial centers and evolution of emerging financial centers.

Treasury & CFO Forum with NeuGroup

This roundtable will be open to strategic group treasurers and CFOs and strategic group treasurers from select companies. CFOs will be invited to emphasize their role in strategy and transformation of finance to a business value creator. Treasurers will be invited to spotlight their role in implementing business value enhancement strategies through funding, liquidity management, risk optimization, and technology.

Global Hedge Fund Leaders Roundtable

Climate Driven Value Creation, hosted by Mubadala

Join Mubadala for a high-impact roundtable exploring how sustainability is becoming a powerful lever for value creation. As climate forces reshape economic fundamentals, forward-looking investors are embedding climate considerations across the investment lifecycle to drive returns, resilience and growth. Hear from Mubadala about investor-focused sustainability value creation approaches that integrate climate into strategy and operations. Discover how this thinking is unlocking opportunities across sectors and shaping investing.

The ADFW Speakers Dinner

VVIP Dinner

The Tech-onomic Forecast: Top Digital Shifts You Can’t Ignore

Stay ahead of the curve with a deep dive into the top digital transformation trends set to redefine the world of finance and banking. From AI-driven automation to the rise of decentralized finance, this session reveals the game-changing shifts every business leader needs to understand to thrive in tomorrow’s financial landscape.

Building the Future of Finance: The UAE’s Fintech Success

The UAE is building the future of finance through progressive regulation and future-proofing financial market infrastructure. Join this session to hear the concise view from the Central Bank on how the UAE is enabling innovation and positioning itself as a leading global hub for fintech.

Crypto’s Moment of Truth: Boom, Bridge or Build?

The wild ride of crypto has minted fortunes and shaken reputations but can it ever shake off the turbulence? This unfiltered fireside tackles the hard questions: is real utility finally emerging, or are we still chasing speculative ghosts? Who wins the battle for trust: exchanges, institutions or regulators? Expect sharp views, strong disagreements, and a clear-eyed look at whether crypto survives, or thrives, in its next chapter.

The Internet Financial System: A New Architecture for the Global Economy

The age of analog finance is over. Join Circle Cofounder, CEO, and Chairman Jeremy Allaire as he lays out a vision for the rapid rise of the Internet Financial System—a real-time, borderless, and programmable layer for economic value exchange.

Digital Credit: Harnessing Superior Yield through Bitcoin

As legacy financial systems face disruption, digital credit infrastructure is fast becoming the foundation for a new economic paradigm. In this keynote, Strategy’s Michael Saylor explores how decentralised technologies, institutional-grade assets and a shift in monetary thinking are transforming the future of credit, liquidity and long-term value.

The Great Convergence: The Infrastructure Race for Tomorrow’s Markets

As financial markets undergo radical transformation, the lines between traditional infrastructure and next-generation platforms are blurring. This conversation explores the convergence of old and new, from settlement rails to tokenization protocols and what it takes to build trust, scale and resilience into the financial architecture of tomorrow. With global capital, regulation, and innovation pulling in different directions, who will shape the foundations of the next era?

In Conversation in Solmate

Leading Through Disruption: In Conversation with Lord David Cameron

Unlocking the Next Chapter in Global Money Flow

As billions move across borders daily, the rails and rules underpinning those flows are evolving fast. In this session, leaders from institutional infrastructure, retail platforms and global remittance networks unpack how payments innovation is transforming access, efficiency and inclusion across both emerging and developed markets. From building trust across fragmented jurisdictions to scaling digital-first models at speed, this is a grounded, real-world look at the breakthroughs reshaping how money moves and where the next leap will come from.

Modernising the Machine: Inside the Transformation of Traditional Banking

What does transformation really look like inside a traditional financial institution? In this candid discussion, learn how banks are rewiring operations, digitising at scale and preparing for a future shaped by AI, tokenisation and rising client expectations. Beyond buzzwords, they’ll explore what’s working, what’s breaking and how institutions with legacy weight are turning it into competitive advantage in a market that demands constant reinvention.

Vision, Volatility, and Velocity: What Fintech CEOs Are Betting On Next

From reimagining credit to redefining digital banking, today’s fintech leaders are navigating a market that demands speed, trust and bold moves. In this high-level discussion, growth focused CEOs unpack what’s on their radar: regulation, profitability, AI, customer trust and what they’d do differently if starting again. Candid, future-focused and unapologetically ambitious, this is a conversation about what it really takes to lead in fintech’s next chapter.

Fintech in 2025: The Perspective of Hanwha

Champions of the Falcon Economy

This special segment will showcase the investment thesis and growth strategies of several listed industrial champions as they shape Abu Dhabi’s economic future.

Signals of Change: Where Innovation is Finding Momentum

A new layer of infrastructure is quietly reshaping how value, data and intelligence flow through the digital economy. This session brings together architects of tomorrow’s systems to explore what’s being rebuilt from the ground up, and why the region’s accelerated adoption is setting the tone for what comes next.

The Unicorn Formula: Funding Winners Before the World Notices

What does it really take to back a billion-dollar company before the crowd catches on? In this candid fireside, hear from several of the most active early-stage investors on the planet as they share the signals they trust, the bets that paid off and what’s changed in the hunt for outliers. From instinct to data, pricing to patience, this is the unfiltered playbook behind building a unicorn portfolio.

The Power of the Crowd: How AI and Social Are Reshaping Retail Investing

AI tools, open marketplaces and public API's are empowering a global community to build and share their own investing tools. By combining the collective intelligence of millions of users with cutting-edge AI, social investing can become a true engine for innovation in retail finance. Find out more in this keynote, featuring real-life use cases.

Beyond OTPs: Building Trust in a Device-First, Authentication Future

Financial institutions worldwide are moving away from SMS and email OTPs. Why? They are easily stolen through phishing, SIM swaps and malware, and they frustrate customers with friction and delays. To truly safeguard digital banking, institutions must embed device fingerprints, behavioral biometrics and advanced analytics. Whether mandated by regulation or adopted proactively, the case is the same: authentication must be device-bound, behaviour-aware and analytics-driven. This session explores how to prepare for what comes next.

Digital Desire: How Tokenizing Luxury Can Lead to New Ownership Models

Luxury is no longer limited to physical goods, instead it's algorithmic, tokenized and increasingly hyper-personalized. From fractional real estate to fashion NFTs and AI-curated brand experiences, this fireside explores how emerging tech is redefining exclusivity and ownership. With one foot in the tangible world and the other in digital ecosystems, today’s innovators are using AI and tokenization not just to sell, but to elevate status, shape identity and create scarcity in infinite digital spaces.

(Re)Insurance (Re)Imagined: Navigating Climate Risk, AI and Market Volatility

This high-level conversation explores how the reinsurance sector is evolving in response to mounting climate risks, AI-powered modeling innovations and fluctuating capital markets. Industry leaders discuss strategies for building resilience, leveraging technology to enhance risk assessment and adapting to a rapidly changing financial landscape to safeguard the future of global insurance.

Invisible Payments, Visible Growth: Under the Hood of Today's Power Plays

From challenger banks to cloud-native scaleups, the financial stack behind global innovation is undergoing a quiet revolution. This panel brings together four bold operators rewriting the rules, from startup banking built for tomorrow’s tech giants, to payments platforms going global from east to west and infrastructure players taking on the hyperscalers. Together, they’ll explore what it takes to fuel the next wave of growth, asking who’s really holding the keys to the future of fintech?

The Global CMO: Growth, Governance and Getting It Right in New Markets

For CMOs at global financial platforms, entering new markets isn’t just a launch plan, it’s a regulatory, cultural and reputational minefield. This conversation brings together marketing leaders to explore the tightrope between ambition and accountability. How do you localise without diluting? Where does marketing intersect with legal and compliance? And what does it take to earn trust in regions where your brand is unknown, or perhaps misunderstood?

From Islands to Infrastructure: Borderless Financial Services

Fragmented systems, national platforms and closed-loop architectures have long defined the financial world, but that’s changing fast. As regulators, fintechs and infrastructure builders converge, the push for interoperability, real-time access, and shared standards is reshaping how money moves. This session brings together leaders to explore what it takes to build a truly connected financial future and who sets the rules when money moves across systems, sectors and borders.

The MENA Fintech Awards

The MENA Fintech Awards celebrate the region’s most innovative and impactful fintech companies, entrepreneurs, and leaders. Recognizing excellence across categories like payments, digital banking and new technologies, the awards highlight the breakthroughs driving financial inclusion and technological transformation across the Middle East and North Africa.

Welcome to RESOLVE - Abu Dhabi International Dispute Resolution Forum

Please stay tuned for more details about this session soon.

Opening Remarks by ADGM Courts

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Justice with Courage: The UAE’s Path to Legal Leadership

In times of uncertainty, it takes courage to lead and set the standard. In this keynote, His Excellency will reflect on how the UAE’s judiciary is confronting the disputes of tomorrow, whether they arise from technology, commerce, or shifting global dynamics. By weaving innovation into the fabric of justice, the nation is building a system that commands confidence, protects fairness, and ensures the rule of law continues to guide society through uncharted territory.

That Will Never Work: In Conversation with Marc Randolph

This conversation traces the quiet persistence and bold choices behind building a global disruptor. Through moments of doubt, reinvention, and unlikely success, it offers a window into the mindset required to embrace uncertainty. For leaders in law and business, it’s a gentle reminder that the ideas most worth pursuing are often the ones others dismiss too quickly.

AI Reckonings: Risk, Rights & Resolution

As generative AI reshapes how business operates, it’s also accelerating threats. Cyberattacks have surged with phishing alone spiking over 1200% in one year. This panel will examine the mounting dispute resolution challenges triggered by AI, from liability in algorithmic decisions to accountability in AI-enabled breaches. With global regulators struggling to keep pace, what role must the legal community play in shaping safeguards, enforcement tools, and ethical frameworks before the next crisis strikes?

Coffee & Networking

Are You Ready for The Cyborgs?

Dr. Nancy W. Gleason will explore how individuals and institutions can remain future-ready in times of disruption. Drawing from her work on education, policy, workforce development and emerging neuroscience including brain-computer interfaces, she will examine how systems can foster critical thinking, adaptability and inclusion. This talk highlights the courage required to rethink legacy models in law, leadership and learning. It invites attendees to reflect on what true preparedness means for the unpredictable decades ahead.

Code, Currency, and Courts: Unravelling a Cross-Border Crypto Dispute

This session dissects a real-world cross-border crypto dispute, tracing a tokenised asset across jurisdictions and unpacking the legal fallout when the transaction unravels. As DeFi and digital assets transcend borders, courts face tough questions: Which law applies? Who has jurisdiction? Can crypto be frozen? Can judgments be enforced on-chain? Conflicting regulations further complicate enforcement. A dynamic panel of counsel, regulators, and industry insiders will walk through a multi-jurisdictional case, exposing procedural hurdles, clashing legal frameworks, and the urgent need for legal clarity in an unbounded digital economy.

Lunch & Networking

The Edge: Strategy, Pressure, Negotiation

In a world of relentless demands and razor-thin margins, how do top performers make decisions under pressure? This spotlight session explores the intersection of mental clarity, strategic negotiation, and sustained high performance. Blending behavioural science, leadership insight, and real-world tactics, our speaker reveals how to stay sharp when the stakes are highest, and how to turn negotiation into a performance edge, not a pressure point. For leaders, lawyers, and strategists - this is performance redefined.

Risk & Regulation: A CEO’s Playbook

What are the unresolved threats that top CEOs are quietly preparing for? This session brings together senior business minds to explore the high-consequence disputes facing today’s corporate leaders - from ESG litigation and shareholder activism to cyber breaches, geopolitical backlash, sudden enforcement sweeps and more. How are leadership teams aligning their legal strategy with boardroom priorities? What does effective pre-litigation risk management really look like when reputation and regulation collide?

Welcome to AI & Fintech Abu Dhabi

Kick off a dynamic programme exploring the technologies, trends and breakthroughs transforming finance and intelligence. This welcome sets the tone for a week where innovation meets impact, and where Abu Dhabi takes centre stage in shaping the future.

Innovating Beyond Boundaries: Lessons from Netflix’s Disruption

Marc Randolph, co-founder and first CEO of Netflix, draws on his experience with this megabrand. From transforming entertainment through a then revolutionary subscription payments model, to exploring how disruptive innovation can reshape financial markets. He shares insights on embracing change, scaling new business models and influencing customer behaviour in today's rapidly changing world.

Agentic AI: Powering Instant Intelligence

Now the driver powering instant intelligence, Agentic AI offers autonomous, real-time decision-making that revolutionises fraud detection, risk management and customer personalisation. In this panel discover how self-driven AI systems can accelerate financial processes, cut through complexity and deliver smarter, faster outcomes. Transforming the future of digital finance right before our eyes.

The Intelligence Economy: What Happens When AI Gets Real

In this session two of the sharpest minds at the frontier of machine intelligence explore what’s next. From building the infrastructure that powers foundation models, creating digital workers and applying scientific insight at scale, this fireside goes deep on how AI is remaking decision-making, risk and value creation across industries. What happens when AI stops being a tool and instead, starts becoming the environment?

Conviction & Code: Utilising Foundational Frameworks to Build New Economic Ecosystems

As artificial intelligence moves from experimental to essential, its impact on global economic systems is being shaped by more than just innovation, it’s being guided by conviction, control and long-term vision. In this session, investment leaders, AI pioneers and governance architects explore how trusted infrastructure, ethical frameworks, and strategic alignment are driving the next era of financial and technological growth. From national strategies to corporate execution, this is where foundational decisions are made.

Blockchain Abu Dhabi Opening Address

Please stay tuned for more details about this session soon.

Bullish for Builders: Is 2026 the Year the Foundations Hold?

This isn’t just another crypto panel. It’s a pulse check from insiders who have built empires, weathered cycles and called the market before it moved. With decades of combined foresight across blockchain, trading and innovation, this conversation brings together some of the most influential and at times controversial voices in digital assets. From market resilience to next-gen adoption, they will unpack what’s real, what’s noise and why the bets they are placing now could shape everything in 2026.

The Long Game: Rebuilding Trust in Global Finance with Decentralized Infrastructure

As volatility, fragmentation and regulatory overcorrection redefine the post-crisis landscape, this keynote unpacks how decentralized infrastructure is quietly becoming the backbone of tomorrow’s financial system. From settlement and custody to sovereign stablecoins and programmable assets, trust is no longer built by institution, but by design.

Public Chains, Public Gains: Blockchain for a Better Society

From protecting medical records to streamlining public finance, blockchain is gaining ground as a transformative tool for governments. In this session, we explore how decentralised infrastructure is being used to improve access, transparency, and trust across sectors, from healthcare to identity to social services. As civic applications move beyond theory into practice, we ask: can blockchain unlock more inclusive, citizen-centric systems? And what will it take for these innovations to scale safely, securely, and for public good?

Privacy at Scale: Evolving Digital Assets for the Future Economy

As regulation tightens and adoption widens from on-chains to stablecoins, it's important to build resilience across compliance, privacy and infrastructure. Join industry leaders to explore how to scale securely, serve millions and remain adaptable in a fast-moving market. Can privacy and compliance coexist? What does platform resilience really mean and which players are truly ready for what comes next?

Collateral Infrastructure: Building the Rails for Tokenized Leverage

From tokenized funds to next-gen lending protocols, unlocking crypto collateral is becoming a key frontier for institutional adoption. This panel brings together leaders to explore how tokenized assets, DeFi infrastructure, and regulated trading venues are reshaping capital efficiency. What guardrails are needed? What’s stopping institutions from tapping into this value? And how close are we to real interoperability between crypto-native and traditional collateral systems?

High Speed Horizons: Speed and Scalability Converge

The next evolution in global finance is Internet Capital Markets — a single global marketplace for every tradeable asset, operating at the same scale the internet does for information. Hear from one of the industries most prominent figures about the way blockchain technology is transforming the future of finance, the real-world use cases live today, the technical breakthroughs making them possible, and his vision for a future where markets are open, instant, and accessible to anyone, anywhere.

Solving Trust and Liquidity Challenges in Digital Asset Markets

With an increased digital assets market, liquidity and trust remain key drivers of institutional confidence and market scalability. This session explores how transparency, security measures and evolving infrastructure come together to create resilient, efficient markets. Experts will discuss how these foundations enable sustainable growth and foster wider adoption of digital finance.

From Access to Allocation: How Institutions Are Scaling Digital Asset Portfolios

As institutional exposure to digital assets deepens the challenge is no longer just access, it's allocation. This session brings together leaders from asset management, crypto-native funds and infrastructure to explore how multi-fund strategies are evolving to meet the needs of institutional investors. From managing volatility and regulatory complexity to scaling across fund structures and custody models, the conversation will unpack how institutions are building diversified, defensible crypto portfolios for the long term.

Keeping the FlyWheel Spinning: How Legacy Finance is Fuelling Next-Gen Products

Dive into how financial giants are taking the best of their legacy strength and blending it with cutting-edge DLT magic. We’ll explore how lessons from the blockchain gaming world are reshaping payment innovations, how ventures are backing the next wave of embedded finance, and how trends from East to West are shaping the future. See how established players are not just keeping pace but setting the tempo for the next generation of financial products.

Programmable Yield: Building the Next Market for Tokenised Debt

Debt markets are being reimagined on-chain. From tokenised treasuries to programmable fixed-income products, the infrastructure is emerging to create a new category of digital assets: scalable, transparent, and globally accessible debt instruments. As legacy systems converge with blockchain rails, the question is no longer when – but how fast institutions will adopt this new model.

Stablecoins in the Balance: Navigating Trust and Scale

Stablecoins are edging closer to the core of global finance but questions of trust and scale remain unresolved. This session brings together key players from both traditional finance and blockchain infrastructure to explore what it takes to operationalise stablecoins in a regulated environment. From settlement speed to regulatory clarity, the conversation focuses on the roadblocks that remain and the partnerships emerging to overcome them.

From Protocol to Platform: Reimagining Blockchains

Blockchain is no longer just about transfers, it’s about transformation. This keynote unpacks how today’s most advanced networks are moving beyond base-layer protocols to become platforms for real financial innovation. Think tokenized assets, faster rails, smarter contracts and the tools that turn infrastructure into impact.

Have We Finished Building the Bridge?

From disruption to deployment, blockchain has reshaped how finance thinks about value, trust and technology. Yet as regulation, infrastructure and liquidity mature, the question remains: have we truly connected decentralised innovation with the financial systems it set out to transform, or is the bridge still under construction? Voices from the foundation, framework and flow side of the ecosystem deliver their verdict and debate what it will take to finally complete the connection.

Risk4.0: A Welcome from ADGM

Please stay tuned for more details about this session soon.

Abu Dhabi in Action: Strengthening Market Integrity Across the Emirate

Market integrity is the foundation of innovation. In this conversation, regulators and industry leaders explore how Abu Dhabi is modernising its compliance frameworks, strengthening anti–money laundering and fraud-prevention measures, and leveraging technology to enhance oversight and accountability. Together, they examine how these efforts are reinforcing transparency, investor confidence, and sustainable growth across one of the world’s most forward-looking financial hubs.

Securing the Future: Building Cyber Resilience in Financial Hubs

Join the ADGM Academy to discuss the evolving cyber threat landscape facing global financial hubs. This fireside explores how collaboration between government bodies, regulatory academies, and industry leaders is shaping strategies to enhance cyber resilience, protect critical infrastructure and cultivate skilled talent ready to tackle tomorrow’s security challenges.

The Future of Stablecoins: From Safe Assets to Engines of Real-World Growth

Stablecoins have become one of the most important financial innovations of the last decade, but their next phase will be defined by utility, transparency, and real-world impact. This talk explores how stablecoins are evolving beyond passive reserves into instruments that can safely channel global capital toward productive activity—including the fast-growing private-credit markets of emerging economies. We'll explore what's driving this shift, and what it means for institutions seeking sustainable, risk-adjusted yield.

Criminal Code: Mapping the Cybercrime Economy

Cybercrime is now the backbone of a trillion-dollar illicit economy. From cyber-enabled money laundering to large-scale scams, criminals are exploiting digital tools to operate at industrial scale. Cyber-enabled money laundering now accounts for a significant portion of the staggering $2 trillion laundered globally and over $1 trillion is stolen by scammers each year. This session explores how cyber and financial crime are converging and what governments, industry, and international bodies must do to fight back.

Quantum Has Landed: What Would You Build First?

The age of quantum isn't coming, it's here. Encryption? Breakable. Simulations? Limitless. Infrastructure? Scrambling to catch up. In this future-facing panel, we ask a provocative question: if quantum capabilities were fully unlocked today, what would you build first? Join quantum pioneers as they explore what’s possible now, what financial systems must unlearn and what kind of world we're coding into existence, before someone else does it first.

Cross-Border Confidence: Payments, Permissions and Global Compliance

As financial institutions scale across borders, the ability to navigate fragmented regulatory environments, manage third-party data risks and embed trust into operational infrastructure is now mission-critical. This session brings together infrastructure providers, compliance specialists and digital payment pioneers to explore how financial ecosystems can remain agile and resilient, even as scrutiny intensifies. From API-led payments and secure data frameworks to regulatory readiness and governance innovation, discover the behind-the-scenes building blocks enabling global trust at scale.

The Human Element: Managing Risk Beyond Technology

Despite billions spent on cybersecurity, a record rise in fraud and cybercrime continues and the weakest link isn’t code, it’s people. From misdirected payments to manipulated employees, human error remains the top driver of breaches across finance. This session explores how firms are rethinking risk strategies to account for the human factor like training, culture, accountability, especially in sectors and organisations most vulnerable to attack. Because when every click counts, resilience starts with behaviour.

The Future of Trust: Identity Verification to Entity Centric Risk

Fraud prevention has outgrown transactional and based defenses. The next frontier is entity-centric risk, understanding the full digital footprint behind every user.In this session, we’ll explore how new detection and verification technologies connect device, behavioral, and cross-platform signals to define what truly constitutes an identity and their corresponding entity risk. This proactive approach not only stops fraud earlier but enables banks and fintechs to grow safely and confidently, because real growth begins with trust.

Insurance 4.0. What to Do and What to Stop

Insurance is going data first. The next win is one shared record of risk. This session sets out how Abu Dhabi, as it builds on its already growing market, can put in clean rails from day one. Capturing at source, keep a single record, connect the handoffs and avoid digitising legacy.

Five Real Risks We Face Tomorrow

Behind today’s headlines are systemic risks that most of the market continues to underestimate, or ignore entirely. In this sharp, forward-looking address, a leading mind on financial systems and regulatory design outlines five structural threats that demand urgent attention from both policymakers and private actors. With a track record of influencing global regulation, advising governments and drafting policy frameworks, he reveals the hidden vulnerabilities that could define tomorrow’s market landscape and what must be done now to mitigate them.

Digital Infrastructure 2030: Convergence of AI, Web3, and Real-World Systems

By 2030, the boundaries between artificial intelligence, decentralized networks, and real-world systems will blur. AI will not only act as a tool but as an active participant–trading, creating, and governing within digital infrastructures. Web3 promises trustless coordination, yet what happens when algorithms, not humans, are the primary agents on these networks? This session will will challenge leaders to imagine futures where identity, creativity, responsibility, and value are redefined by the convergence of AI and Web3. Together, we will explore what digital infrastructure humanity should build to safeguard dignity and resilience while embracing unprecedented opportunities.

Institutional Bridges: Institutional Adoption and the Evolution of Digital Asset Regulation

Institutional adoption of digital assets is no longer a question of if but how. Regulators, central banks, and financial institutions are under pressure to balance innovation with stability while new forms of money–stablecoins, CBDCs, tokenized deposits–are vying to become the backbone of the next global settlement layer. This session will explore the institutional bridges needed to move from experimentation to real-world scale: regulatory frameworks that encourage responsible growth, infrastructure that can integrate with legacy systems, and cultural shifts within finance that embrace decentralization without losing trust. Participants will discuss how regulatory innovation can unlock the next phase of adoption and what shape the future financial architecture will take.

The AI Evolution: From Potential to Practicality with Bloomberg

AI is changing the financial industry — and the world around us — at an accelerating pace. This roundtable will explore how AI is becoming a foundational technology in building more connected, efficient, and resilient financial systems, from capital flows and risk management to optimisation and market intelligence. Focusing on the challenges of enterprise AI adoption and insights on some of its most promising applications across finance.

Executive Dinner

Welcome to the 8th Edition of Abu Dhabi Sustainable Finance Forum

Join the CEO of the ADGM Authorities extend a warm welcome to the Abu Dhabi Sustainable Finance Forum. The 8th edition has cemented the forum as a pivotal gathering in the world of climate finance. As ADGM pursues its vision of becoming the leader in Green Finance, we take a moment to reflect on some of the initiatives and actions already underway to turn this vision into reality.

The Climate Finance Architect's Board, with GCFC

A high-level boardroom session convened by the Global Climate Finance Centre, designed as a public “board meeting” with CEOs, policymakers, and global advisors. This debate will explore practical pathways to position the UAE as a global climate finance hub and unlock capital for transition projects.

Champions of the Falcon Economy

This special segment will showcase the investment thesis and growth strategies of several listed industrial champions as they shape Abu Dhabi’s economic future.

Achieving a Double Bottom Line

Few areas of finance capture the balance between purpose and performance as strongly as impact investing. From advancing global health to unlocking breakthroughs in deeptech, impact capital is reshaping how industries deliver measurable social good and generate tangible benefits for communities alongside sustainable financial returns. This fireside discussion will explore investment trends, innovation frontiers, and how purposeful capital can build more inclusive, resilient, and future-ready societies.

Pledges to Projects: Scaling Energy Transition

This session unpacks how global climate pledges are driving capital toward electrification and renewable infrastructure globally. Join pioneering firms transform climate ambition scaling low-carbon fuel supply chains, advanced battery materials delivering high energy density, and clean energy operations that integrate sustainability across the value chain.

Abu Dhabi: The Capital of Green Capital

A dynamic look at Abu Dhabi’s rise as a global hub for climate finance and investment resilience. This session explores how forward-thinking policies, strategic investments, future-proofing and flagship projects are creating high-impact ecosystems shaping the future.

Sustainable Byte: Low Impact AI Infrastructure

As we enter the AI era and digital demand surges, so do its energy and resource needs. This panel explores how data centres, computing power, and AI ecosystems can be designed for minimal environmental impact, balancing sustainability and innovation in the digital age.