The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the New York State Banking Department regarding co-operation and exchange of information, last week.

The Department is the primary regulator for state-licensed and state-chartered financial entities, including domestic banks, foreign agencies, branches and representative offices, savings institutions and trust companies, credit unions and other financial institutions operating in New York including mortgage bankers and brokers, check cashers, money transmitters, and licensed lenders, among others.

Total assets of the institutions regulated are nearly AED 8.8 trillion (USD 2.4 trillion). A branch of one of these banks is authorised to carry out financial services in and from the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and is supervised by the DFSA.

The MoU was signed by Mr Paul Koster, Chief Executive of the DFSA, and Mr Richard Neiman, New York State’s Superintendent of Banks, at the Department’s headquarters, in New York.

The Chief Executive of the DFSA, Mr Paul Koster said: “I am very pleased to have concluded this arrangement with Superintendent Nieman and the DFSA is honoured to have formalised its relationship with the oldest banking regulatory agency in the United States. As co-supervisors of a common institution operating in New York and in the DIFC, the State Banking Department and the DFSA are committed to enhancing co-operation and information sharing in relation to this bank, and any others that may follow in future.

“This memorandum was drafted in light of the Basel Principles for Effective Banking Supervision and complements another MoU established by the DFSA in October 2007 with the four US Federal banking supervisors - the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTC), to ensure a co-ordinated approach between home and host supervisors of a number of significant US banks.”