Ali Faisal Ba’Alawi was appointed as the Head of United Arab Emirates Financial Intelligence Unit on April 2021. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Ba’Alawi spent time at the UAE’s Executive Office for AML/CFT serving as a Director for Communication and Strategic Partnership where he helped establishing the function and lead the efforts of the Executive Office in its regional and international engagement. Mr. Ba’Alawi previously served as Head of Suspicious Transaction Reports (STR) Analysis in the UAE FIU since October 2017, where he was mandated to lead STR analysts team and enhance the analytical capabilities of the Unit. In March 2018, he was given the additional mandate to serve as the Acting Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), leading its efforts in enhancing the FIU’s intelligence infrastructure and cooperation with strategic partners domestically and internationally. Prior to his role with FIU, Mr. Ba’Alawi was in the financial regulation sector with the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) for 8 years.

During his tenure in the DFSA, Mr. Ba’Alawi was responsible for supervising a variety of DFSA regulated financial institutions including Designated Non- Financial Businesses and Professions. His particular focus was advancing DFSA’s ongoing Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism efforts. Mr. Ba’Alawi is also a member of the National Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting of Financing of Terrorism and Illegal Organizations Committee and other national committees/sub-committees. He also represents UAE in a number of international and regional AML/CFT forums.

Mr. Ba’Alawi holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology and Business Information Systems from Middlesex University and a MBA from Cass Business School, City University of London.