The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) holds its annual Tomorrow’s Regulatory Leaders (TRL) Awards later today. The purpose of the awards is to congratulate Emirati employees who have completed the DFSA’s two-year TRL Programme.

The programme prepares newly graduated UAE Nationals to become financial services regulators. A combination of in-house training and coaching by experts from international financial centres and examinations from the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments (UK) makes the TRL Programme a unique development programme. Graduates join as TRL Associates and over the two years undergo over 400 hours of class room training along with on-job coaching from their more experienced DFSA colleagues. They also benefit from regular mentoring and industry placements within Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Firms.

Mr Paul Koster, Chief Executive of the DFSA said, “We take our obligations to the financial services community very seriously. To be a good regulator is to understand the challenges and market conditions your regulated community is facing. This is difficult at any stage of a regulator’s career but more so when you are first starting out. DFSA is working closely with many DIFC-based Firms to provide our trainees with the opportunity to work in financial services institutions as part of the TRL Programme, so they can better understand our regulated community.

Almost 95% of the TRL Programme is delivered by our regulatory colleagues who write and deliver training material or coach our trainees on a daily basis, where they benefit from a wealth of regulatory experience and gain an international perspective. In our awards today we not only celebrate the success of our young Emirati colleagues, but also recognise the considerable efforts and enthusiasm our trainers and coaches have shown over the last year.

In line with our core regulatory mission, the TRL Programme is one of our most important strategic initiatives. We place great importance on developing the next generation of regulatory leaders.”

Mr Abdullah Saleh, Chairman of the DFSA said, “We are proud to say that 26% of our regulators are UAE Nationals. Since inception we have graduated nine managers with another ten trainees currently going through the Programme. The success of this programme is very important to the DFSA and we will continue our efforts to deliver sustainable and enduring benefits to the UAE, by developing young Emiratis for long-term careers in financial services regulation.”