The NYU Stern School of Business at NYU Abu Dhabi has launched the The Institute for Global Financial Competitiveness, a new research programme supported by billionaire investor Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates.
The institute will analyse and rank international financial centres (IFCs) worldwide, setting a global benchmark from the Middle East for evaluating their competitiveness, innovation and impact.
It seeks to advance understanding of IFCs and their influence on global markets through cutting-edge data science and economic research, according to the university. Its first major publication, the Financial Centres Competitiveness Index (FCCI), will debut at Abu Dhabi Finance Week in December.
The decision was made during high-level discussions between senior officials from the Abu Dhabi government and the leadership of New York University during the Abu Dhabi Investment Trade Mission to New York last week, a source from the Abu Dhabi delegation told The National.
Mr Dalio’s involvement underscores the initiative’s ambition to become a leading source of insight into the future of global finance.
“His contribution reflects our shared goal to better understand how financial systems evolve and compete in an interconnected world,” said Rob Salomon, dean at Stern.
The institute aims to attract academics, policymakers and industry leaders to explore how international financial centres can help create a new analytical framework that measures competitiveness not only in financial and human capital but also in future readiness.
“It marks a pivotal moment in using data science to understand the true status of financial centres globally,” said Ahmed Al Zaabi, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development.
Soft power
This could be the first regional index of its kind from the Middle East, Amro Zakaria, global financial markets strategist and the founding partner of Kyoto Network and Madarik Ventures, told The National.
"It is strategically vital for cementing the UAE's status as a global financial leader, attracting investment, and projecting soft power."
This eventually "reduces friction to co-operation" in diplomatic, financial, and commercial endeavours he added.
Despite the Middle East’s growing prominence as a financial hub, the region has not established a data-driven benchmark ranking the competitiveness of its international financial hubs at the level of indices from New York, London or Singapore.
"Creating a credible, data-driven index establishes the UAE as a thought leader, strengthening its diplomatic and economic influence," he said, drawing parallels to Abu Dhabi creating Murban Crude Oil Benchmark that gave the UAE a greater voice in the energy market pricing dynamics.
The FCCI could magnify the UAE's methodologies and therefore its ability to shape the financial centres linked to it, he added.
Currently, leading global indices — including the Z/Yen Global Financial Centres Index from London and the Xinhua–IFZ Global Financial Centres Development Index in Shanghai — include Middle Eastern cities such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Doha among their ranked centres. However, these rankings originate outside the region, leaving the Middle East without a home-grown equivalent.
Financial authorities in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain publish detailed reports on their respective markets — such as the Dubai International Financial Centre’s annual fintech review or Saudi Arabia’s Financial Sector Development Programme — yet these remain self-assessment frameworks rather than independent, comparative indices.
At the regional level, the Arab Monetary Fund in Abu Dhabi produces the Arab Financial Development Index, which evaluates financial depth, access, efficiency and stability across Arab economies. While valuable, the AFDI focuses on macro-financial performance rather than ranking financial centres by global competitiveness.
In the case of Abu Dhabi, this index could give the UAE agenda setting power to define what the key financial factors are globally such as sustainability, digital assets, and even Islamic finance.
Mr Zakaria says the UAE has already created its own methodologies in several sectors over the years that are being used as a benchmark such as with free zones and foreign ownership of properties and companies.
"The blueprint is being adopted and talked about everywhere from the US congress to a recent clean energy conference," he said,
