The FCA plants flags in Mumbai and Abu Dhabi: what the attaché push signals

The FCA has named Sabina Saini and Darine Obeid as its new financial services attachés for India and the UAE, based in Mumbai and Abu Dhabi respectively (FCA). The postings extend a network that already includes Washington DC, Brussels, Singapore and Asia-Pacific, and they land at a moment when the FCA is explicitly positioning itself as a growth instrument rather than a purely domestic supervisor.

Key Executive Takeaways

• The FCA now has permanent representation in Mumbai and Abu Dhabi, giving UK-regulated firms a direct regulatory channel into two of the largest inbound investment corridors.
• Boosting exports and inward investment is a stated FCA growth priority, meaning senior compliance and strategy functions should expect the regulator to act commercially, not just prudentially, in these markets.
• Firms with India or Gulf ambitions should map their engagement plans against the attachés' remits before competitors do, particularly given the February 2026 Exchange of Letters with the IFSCA.

A regulator that travels

The choice of India and the UAE is not incidental. Both jurisdictions have become material sources of capital, talent and listings activity for London, and both have built ambitious domestic financial centres, GIFT City in Gujarat and ADGM in Abu Dhabi, that compete directly with UK propositions. Ruairí O'Connell OBE, director, international at the FCA, said the appointments will 'advance the UK's interests on financial services policy and help drive investment into our open market' (FCA). That is unusually commercial language from a conduct regulator, and it should be read as such.

The timing also matters. On 11 February 2026, the FCA signed an Exchange of Letters with the International Financial Services Centres Authority, the GIFT City regulator (FCA). Placing a senior officer in Mumbai converts that paper agreement into operational reach. For UK asset managers, insurers and fintechs weighing whether to serve Indian institutional flows from London or set up locally, the calculation now includes a resident FCA voice able to broker access and troubleshoot at ministerial level.

What the CVs tell you

The biographies are instructive. Saini led the FCA's work on the critical third parties regime and broader operational resilience policy, with prior Bank of England experience in resolution and prudential supervision (FCA). Obeid has spent over a decade at the FCA covering retail banking, wholesale banking and fintech, and led high-profile engagement on financial crime, operational resilience, AI and customer outcomes (FCA). Neither is a trade envoy. Both carry supervisory credibility in precisely the areas where cross-border disputes and authorisation friction actually occur: outsourcing chains, AML, and technology risk.

That matters for boards. When a UK-authorised firm hits a regulatory snag in an Indian joint venture or a Gulf branch application, the intermediary is now someone who has written the rules, not simply explained them. It also creates a reciprocal channel: Indian and Emirati regulators will use these posts to raise concerns about UK firms operating in their markets, and those signals will reach FCA supervisors faster than they used to.

The stakeholder recalibration

Senior leaders should treat the attaché network as a live stakeholder set. Government affairs teams that have historically focused on Westminster and Threadneedle Street now have two more doors to knock on, and competitors with earlier relationships will secure earlier hearings. For firms without a defined India or Gulf strategy, the appointments are a prompt to develop one, or to accept that the regulatory conversation about those markets will happen without them in the room.

The FCA has quietly become a commercial actor. Firms that read it only as an enforcement body will misjudge the next two years.