JPMorgan Chase is expanding its presence in Dubai as it seeks to deepen relationships with mid-sized businesses across the Middle East.

The bank has relocated banker Tushar Arora from London to Dubai, where he will focus on venture capital-backed companies, according to Reuters. Stefan Povaly, the London-based co-head of corporate banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told the newswire that mid-cap clients offer JPMorgan an additional revenue stream beyond its traditional focus on large blue-chip firms. “There’s a global focus on doing more in the midcap space,” he said, adding, “This is the first step for an expansion into the midcap space.”

The UAE continues to attract global competition from Europe and the United States, with Dubai rapidly consolidating its status as a regional financial centre. Citi, which first opened an office in the UAE in 1964, has also ramped up resources in the market in recent years, intensifying rivalry among international banks.

JPMorgan’s move forms part of a wider push to strengthen its corporate banking footprint across EMEA. In parallel, the bank has invested more resources in Austria and Poland, and is building teams dedicated to mid-sized firms as it targets cross‑border financing, trade services and capital markets access for privately held and family-owned businesses in the region.

Other financial services firms have recently bolstered their presence across the Middle East and India.

In crypto, Coinbase is expanding its presence by investing in CoinDCX, a leading cryptocurrency exchange with over 20 million users. In July 2025, CoinDCX’s annualised turnover was approximately $141 million, annualised trading activity about $165 billion, and assets under custody exceeded $1.2 billion.

In FinTech, Revolut co-founder and chief executive Nik Storonsky has changed his country of residence from the UK to the UAE as the digital bank prepares a retail launch in the country.

JPMorgan has also advanced its global blockchain strategy. The bank recently signed a partnership with Singaporean giant DBS to develop a new interoperability framework enabling tokenised deposits to move between their blockchain ecosystems.

The initiative aims to enable real-time, cross-border settlement of tokenised deposits across both public and permissioned blockchains, establishing a new industry standard. It also announced the roll out of a private fund tokenised solution on its blockchain business unit Kynexys.

The Kynexys Fund Flow solution is designed to simplify access to alternative investments — including private equity, hedge funds and private credit — by automating tasks such as fund subscriptions, redemptions, transfers and recordkeeping.

---