Global expert services and advisory firm Ankura has formally announced the launch of its Financial Services Advisory practice in the Middle East, marking a significant expansion of its regional capabilities as demand for high-calibre financial advisory services across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) continues to grow.
The move comes after several months of deliberate senior-level hiring across Ankura’s Dubai and Riyadh offices — a build-up that had drawn considerable attention within the regional consulting market before the formal announcement was made.
A Practice Built on Senior Talent
The new Financial Services Advisory practice is led by Zeeshan Idris Khwaja, Senior Managing Director, who is based at Ankura’s Dubai office in the Index Tower, DIFC. Khwaja, who serves as EMEA Head of Financial Services Advisory, brings deep expertise in business strategy, C-suite advisory, and central bank engagement across emerging and developed markets.
Alongside Khwaja, the practice is supported by a team of seasoned professionals assembled in recent months, including Adil Khan, Kabeer Paliwalla, Salah Hamawi, and Sami Roumani — each bringing specialised capabilities that collectively position the practice to address a wide range of client needs across the financial services landscape.
“Our new Financial Services Advisory practice in the Middle East is focused on helping clients translate strategy into measurable outcomes — driving growth, enabling transformation, and delivering sustained performance,” Khwaja said in a statement. “The GCC’s financial services sector is at an inflection point, and we are here to help institutions navigate that complexity with clarity and confidence.”
What the Practice Offers
The Financial Services Advisory practice is designed to serve banks, insurers, asset managers, capital markets participants, and financial regulators operating in the Middle East. Its service lines span:
- Strategy and growth advisory — helping institutions define and execute market expansion, product innovation, and competitive positioning strategies
- Transformation and performance improvement — supporting operational overhauls, digital enablement, and organisational redesign
- Risk, compliance, and regulatory advisory — guiding clients through evolving regulatory frameworks, including those aligned with the UAE Central Bank and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 financial sector reform agenda
- Financial crime compliance — building on Ankura’s broader managed services capabilities in anti-money laundering (AML), know-your-customer (KYC), and sanctions compliance
The practice will operate across the firm’s established Middle East offices in Dubai and Riyadh, with access to Ankura’s global network of experts across the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and beyond.
A Region Ripe for Advisory Growth
The timing of Ankura’s launch reflects broader dynamics reshaping the Middle East’s financial services sector. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are both executing ambitious economic diversification programmes — the UAE’s We the UAE 2031 vision and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 — that are fundamentally restructuring the role of financial institutions in supporting growth, foreign investment, and capital market development.
Regional banks are under increasing pressure to modernise their operating models, adopt digital and AI-enabled capabilities, and meet heightened regulatory expectations. Meanwhile, the expansion of sovereign wealth fund activity, private equity deal flow, and cross-border capital movements is generating sustained demand for sophisticated advisory services.
For Ankura, which has been building its Middle East presence steadily since establishing offices in Dubai and Riyadh, the formal launch of a dedicated financial services vertical represents a clear signal of strategic intent in one of the world’s fastest-growing advisory markets.
Ankura’s Broader Middle East Trajectory
This latest launch follows a pattern of disciplined capability-building in the region. In 2023, Ankura launched a dedicated Turnaround & Restructuring practice in the Middle East, led by Senior Managing Directors Karim Labban and D. Geraint Thomas — a practice established to support clients navigating financial distress, complex restructurings, and balance sheet challenges.
The firm has also continued to invest in its financial crime compliance capabilities, recently announcing managed services offerings designed to help financial institutions scale their compliance operations efficiently and cost-effectively.
Taken together, these moves reflect Ankura’s broader ambition to establish itself as a full-service advisory partner for financial institutions operating in — and entering — the Gulf market.
Ankura Consulting Group, LLC is a global expert services and advisory firm headquartered in the United States, with offices across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. The firm provides a broad range of specialised advisory services spanning disputes and investigations, cybersecurity and data privacy, forensics, governance, finance, risk and compliance, digital transformation, operations, and turnaround and restructuring.
Ankura serves clients across a wide range of industries, with financial services among its core verticals. In the Middle East, the firm operates through its offices in Dubai and Riyadh, serving financial institutions, government entities, corporates, and private equity clients throughout the GCC.
Cosmopolitan The Daily is a global business publication delivering authoritative, fact-driven coverage of Finance, Technology, Energy, and Real Estate sectors across international markets. With editorial offices spanning New York, Toronto, London, Dubai, Bangalore, Kuala Lumpur, and Sydney, the publication serves directors and senior executives of leading organisations worldwide.
Through its in-depth reporting, market intelligence, and the annual Business Excellence Awards programme — which recognises outstanding companies from startups to large corporations across sectors and geographies — Cosmopolitan The Daily provides business leaders with the comprehensive insights and sectoral expertise they need to operate with confidence in an increasingly complex global environment.