Geneva-based private bank Arab Bank (Switzerland), which manages around 25 billion US dollars in client assets, has launched a new regional unit in Abu Dhabi Global Market. Arab Bank (Switzerland) Middle East Ltd has been granted a Financial Services Permission from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) to advise clients on digital assets.
What has been authorised
According to the official ADGM announcement and Fintech News UAE, Arab Bank (Switzerland) Middle East Ltd is permitted to advise clients on accessing, managing and planning the transfer of digital-asset holdings. The move expands the group's UAE footprint: in parallel, ABS (Middle East) Ltd has operated in DIFC since June 2026 under CEO Samir Atitallah, focused on traditional wealth management for entrepreneurs and family offices.
Who is running it
The ADGM unit is led by Valérie Noël, a banker with over 30 years in financial markets, wealth management, asset management, trading and digital assets. She previously held senior roles at HSBC Private Bank and was head of trading at Syz Group. According to her, "investments in this space are becoming an increasingly important part of how institutions and investors allocate capital".
Context: digital assets are not new territory for the bank
Arab Bank (Switzerland) has been active in digital assets since 2019, when it launched Bitcoin and Ether custody and trading. It has since added staking, lending against digital-asset collateral, legacy planning and NFT custody (from 2022). The bank runs its own Digital Explorer platform, which gives clients a consolidated view of their holdings and the market. In 2024 it acquired Gonet, a Swiss private bank founded in 1845.
Why it matters for the UAE market
This is another Swiss player moving digital-asset advisory inside the UAE regulatory perimeter rather than leaving it in an offshore arrangement. For high-net-worth individuals, family offices, financial institutions, corporates and fintech firms, that means Swiss-standard service under FSRA rules, within Gulf working hours, and anchored to a UAE entity. On a market level, it brings the wealth-advisory layer closer to the country's virtual-assets infrastructure built through VARA in Dubai and ADGM in Abu Dhabi.
For businesses operating in the Emirates, there are two signals. First, major European banks continue to choose ADGM and DIFC for digital-asset operations — a vote of confidence in the maturity of the regulatory framework. Second, the entry threshold is firmly private-wealth: this is an advisory permission, not brokerage or asset management, so demand will be for consulting — from choosing a custodian to planning asset transfer to heirs.
