"The launch of Diwan Capital is a timely and important move for investors in the region, as well as for those investing in the GCC", commented Nasser Alshaali, CEO of DIFC Authority, continuing:

"The market for derivatives has huge potential and Diwan Capital extends the ability of Dubai and the DIFC to offer world-class financial products within an effective regulatory and operating environment."

D1 is the first boutique investment bank in the GCC to focus on the engineering, selling, and trading of options, structured products, and securitized derivatives based on local and GCC equities as its core business.

A derivative product can be structured as a contract or a security, whereby its value is derived from an underlying asset. Such products are designed to meet investor needs that cannot be met by standardized financial instruments available in the markets.

"We want to inspire investors in the region," noted Buti Saeed Al Ghandi, Chairman of Emirates Investment & Development PSC (a co-founder of D1), "because we believe that innovative and attractive products bring fundamental benefits to the capital markets of the region. D1 has both the expertise and acumen to engineer, list and trade products specifically for GCC investors".

"D1 is a pioneer in providing investors with the opportunity to trade derivatives in Dubai; strengthened by a combination of Western expertise, a strong management team and regional backing, and knowledge of the GCC and Kuwaiti based shareholders" added Abdulwahab Ahmad Al-Nakib, Chairman and Managing Director of Al-Deera Holding Company KSCC, (KW:ALDEERA) who is also is a co-founder of D1.

The mission of D1 is to cater to the fast-growing needs of GCC investors for instruments to optimize, enhance, hedge, and restructure their equity portfolios.

"We are very pleased and proud to be the first institution to be licensed with a declared derivatives focus, and we aim to lead and support the development of regional derivatives," observed Robert A. Bertschinger, CEO of D1.

"The more players join, and the more advanced skills are deployed; the deeper the market, the better for all participants, in particular for D1 with its proprietary risk management and trading technologies."

"D1 will maintain secondary markets for its product range through the lifetime of the derivative instrument. That makes D1 products tradeable and their prices observable much like a common share," explained Chris Biedermann, Head of Trading.

"Introducing products and markets for investors to leverage upside or to insure against risk proved to be the most important step for any developed market to become more liquid. The more liquid markets are, the less likely price gaps are sustained. As a result, markets may become less volatile and thus less risky," he concluded.