FCA Financial Services Attachés Extend Reach Into India & UAE

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has appointed Sabina Saini and Darine Obeid as financial services attachés for India and the UAE respectively, extending an overseas network that already covers Washington DC, Brussels, Singapore and the wider Asia-Pacific. Saini took up her post at the British Deputy High Commission in Mumbai on 10 August 2026; Obeid joins the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi on 31 August 2026.

The FCA has framed both postings around policy influence and inward investment. Ruairí O'Connell OBE, the regulator's director, international, described the appointments as advancing UK interests on financial services policy and driving investment into the UK market, positioning the FCA as a globally connected regulator supporting the whole of its 2025 to 2030 strategy. The stated rationale sits squarely within the growth and competitiveness agenda set out in the FCA's correspondence with the Prime Minister on supporting growth.

That framing should not be mistaken for a signal about financial crime supervision in either direction. Attachés hold diplomatic and policy roles; they do not supervise firms, gather evidence or exercise enforcement powers. What they do change is the texture of regulator-to-regulator contact. Sustained in-country presence tends to shorten the informal channels through which information requests, supervisory intelligence and coordinated positions travel, and it typically precedes formalised co-operation instruments. The FCA's exchange of letters with the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) on 11 February 2026 already established a working basis with the GIFT City regulator; a permanent Mumbai posting gives that relationship operational continuity.

The individual backgrounds carry more signal than the announcement itself. Saini led the FCA's work on the critical third parties regime and broader operational risk and resilience policy, having spent over eight years at the Bank of England across resolution policy, supervision and audit. Placing that expertise in Mumbai is notable given India's role as the dominant offshoring destination for UK financial services technology, operations and — increasingly — financial crime operations themselves. Firms running transaction monitoring alert triage, sanctions screening dispositioning or customer due diligence refresh from Indian global capability centres should expect continued supervisory interest in how those arrangements are governed and evidenced. Obeid brings over a decade at the FCA in supervision across retail banking, wholesale banking and fintech, having led engagement on financial crime, operational resilience, AI and customer outcomes.

For firms with exposure to either corridor, the practical position is unchanged but worth restating. Following the amendment to regulation 33(3) of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 taking effect on 30 June 2026, enhanced due diligence obligations now attach to Financial Action Task Force (FATF) call for action jurisdictions rather than the broader high-risk third country construct. Neither India nor the UAE falls within that category, and the UAE has been off the FATF increased monitoring list since February 2024. The consequence is that residual exposure — sanctions circumvention and re-export routes, trade-based money laundering through free zones, precious metals and high-value dealer channels, informal value transfer, and correspondent relationships with limited transparency — is now entirely a matter for firms' own risk assessments rather than a listing-driven trigger.

Regulation 20 obligations on group-wide policies for overseas branches and subsidiaries remain the operative control point, alongside the additional measures and supervisory notification required where local law prevents equivalent standards being applied.