Our people

Anna Zeitlin

Partner, Fintech and Financial Services
UAE

Expertise

Anna joins the Dubai office of Addleshaw Goddard from PwC, where she was a Director and led the Fintech and Financial Services Practice at PwC Legal Middle East. With a demonstrated track record of growing a loyal client base in fintech, Anna brings a new strategic dimension to Addleshaw Goddard’s burgeoning financial services practice, which is a key pillar of its business focus in the region.

Anna’s work on the government side has included assisting regional governments develop their regulatory frameworks, with notable experience in the financial regulatory space – including working with large GCC free zone authorities in designing digital financial centres and drafting the corresponding regulations. On the private client side, she has advised banks, financial institutions, funds and established fintech companies on the legal and regulatory compliance of their operations in the GCC and the region.

Experience

Experience include:

Advising the world’s largest e-commerce platform on a range of regulatory matters in the GCC*
Undertaking numerous data protection benchmarking projects on behalf of technology providers in the Middle East*
Bringing the region’s largest payment provider to the UAE and incorporating/licencing them in the DIFC*
Advising international banks on cryptocurrency offerings in the UAE*
Drafting the first NFT licence for the UAE’s largest media company
Leading the development of Qatar Financial Centre's digital asset framework from the design phase to drafting the implementing regulations.
Assisting with the establishment of the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority which governs the use of virtual assets in the Emirate of Dubai.
Establishing and licencing Rapyd – Israel's largest payment provider – in the DIFC in Dubai.
Supporting Tabby – the region's largest buy-now-pay-later company – on its significant expansion in the GCC. We provided both legal advice and licencing services.
Successfully obtaining UAE Central Bank licencing for the new fintech arm of Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (Du).

Education