An aspiring financial centre in the Gulf region says Singapore and not Switzerland is the model to follow.

(An earlier version of this story was published yesterday on WealthBriefing, sister publication of this one.)

The Swiss private banking model is “dead”, the head of the financial centre in Abu Dhabi has proclaimed, as the Gulf jurisdiction seeks to set itself up as a new centre for wealth management, the Financial Times reported.

Abu Dhabi Global Markets is an expression of world ambition, and is designed to help put the energy-rich state into the ranks of influential global bodies, and will use Singapore rather than Switzerland as a model, its chairman told the FT.

“Innovation is coming from this new, emerging market. This is why Asian financial centres are sitting on Basel committees and legislating for the West, because they didn’t make one mistake in 15 years,” Ahmed Ali al-Sayegh was quoted as saying in London as he promoted the ADGM’s stall to banks. “We have a similar ambition,” he said.

According to various reports, Switzerland is home to more than SFr2 trillion ($2.06 trillion) of offshore assets; already, there have been net outflows as governments have signed account disclosure agreements with the Alpine state to bring undeclared accounts back onshore. A number of prominent banks, such as UBS and Credit Suisse, for example, no longer provide offshore banking to clients in countries such as the US.

It has sometimes been claimed that Singapore will at some point match, or even overtake, Switzerland as a financial centre, although some of these predictions may be premature, not least because Singapore may not wish to see an influx of "hot" money from Switzerland. Switzerland's demise may also have been exaggerated: it continues to benefit from being a European jurisdiction, with a stable legal system, a settled political regime and with decades of experience in global finance and banking.

ADGM will have its own regulator and courts based on English common law. The organisation is part of a move by the UAE to diversify and reduce reliance on oil and gas revenues. It is perhaps also seen as a rival to Dubai’s International Financial Centre, now a decade old.

The FT quoted Richard Teng, former regulatory head of the Singapore Exchange who will lead ADGM’s regulator, as saying: “When there was the rise in Singapore there was concern that you’ll take away market share from Hong Kong; that has not taken place.” His appointment last year highlighted how the jurisdiction wants to model itself on Singapore.

Sayegh said Switzerland’s banking model was “dead”. “The Singaporeans have signed up to a very transparent deal with the world. You are not very smart if you choose to copy a dead model,” he said.