Dubai is a city and the 2nd largest emirate in the eastern region of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the Persian Gulf. In the 1960s, with the discovery of oil reserves, Dubai rapidly grew into a major international business hub. In recent years Dubai transitioned away from oil and gas businesses and invested heavily in real estate, tourism, and luxury shopping. Dubai City is the capital of the emirate of Dubai.

Dubai first establised an Islamic banking presence with the opening of Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) in the 1970s. Additionally the Dubai government formed the
Dubai Financial Market (DFM) which was on of the worlds first Shari'a compliant global financial exchange. This progressive approach to international finance couppled with the Dubai governments strong focus on tourism resulted in Dubai becoming one of the worlds fasted growing cities and most popular tourist destinations.

Modern Dubai is now home to some of the worlds most impressive real estate and
VIP luxury shopping centers. It is also home to the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) which is home to 1000s of financial entites including banks, brokerages, insurance companies, trading houses, venture capital funds, and holding companies. The DIFC is one of the worlds most significant financial hubs
and is a center of Shariah finance and is one of the world's major islamic banking hubs.