A court-appointed trustee is administering the bankruptcy of United Arab Emirates Exchange Center LLC, and 36 creditors have submitted claims so far. Among them: Barclays Plc, London-based Fidera Ltd, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, and Bank of Baroda.
The trustee has not revealed the aggregate size of the claims and has requested additional time from the court to verify them. Fidera says it is owed about $90 million, an amount referenced in a July ruling that determined UAE Exchange was insolvent. Representatives for Fidera and Barclays would not comment. UAE Exchange, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, and Bank of Baroda did not respond to requests to comment.
A company linked to Fidera initiated the case last year, and a Dubai appeals court upheld the bankruptcy proceedings at a hearing on Wednesday. The claim traces back to a 2016 loan extended to UAE Exchange and parent UX Holdings by a consortium that counted Goldman Sachs International among its lenders. Goldman subsequently assigned its rights under that agreement to Regera S.à r.l., a Luxembourg vehicle tied to Fidera that initiated the bankruptcy claim last year.
According to a report for the proceedings, Regera informed the court's expert that, after purchasing the debt in 2021, it sought to contact creditor-group members who were negotiating with prospective buyers to settle, but "all attempts failed."
UAE Exchange sat inside Finablr, a UK fintech venture set up by Indian businessman B.R. Shetty, alongside foreign exchange firm Travelex Holdings Ltd. After short seller Muddy Waters targeted Shetty's other company, NMC Health Plc, in late 2019, confidence in Finablr cracked. Cash became tight, and liquidity dried up, leading UAE Exchange to halt processing transactions in March 2020.
With Finablr coming apart under about $1.3 billion of debt, Travelex underwent a lender-led restructuring. Global Fintech Investments Holding, an affiliate of Swiss-based Prism Group, teamed with Abu Dhabi-based Royal Strategic Partners and agreed to buy Finablr's remaining business for $1. The sale was pitched as a route to restructure the group's borrowings, but a report for the court says the planned transfer of UAE Exchange did not go ahead because the buyers did not obtain the required regulatory clearances.
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Instead, the UAE Central Bank kept UAE Exchange under its oversight after stepping in during 2020, when the company's problems escalated. Separately, Prism and Royal Strategic Partners launched Wizz Financial in 2021 and described it as a platform to combine Finablr with other money-transfer companies. Emailed inquiries to the UAE Central Bank went unanswered. Representatives for Prism, Royal Strategic Partners, and Wizz Financial also did not reply to requests for comment.
Court filings paint a bleak picture: UAE Exchange has no staff, no license, no operations, and not enough cash to fund a restructuring. The July judgment also notes there is no evidence of outside investment or an ability to meet obligations. The latest audited accounts are from 2018, when net assets stood at AED 828 million. An external analysis referenced in a report for the case estimates net assets at about negative AED 3.8 billion in 2025, or roughly negative $1.03 billion.
The bankruptcy will set recovery levels for creditors and may bring clarity on the years when ownership was unsettled. Global Fintech Investments Holding told the court it had worked with leading creditors and the UAE Central Bank on customer and creditor claims, and that most lenders supported a proposed settlement, although it could not proceed without unanimous lender consent.
The bottom line: outcomes hinge on verified claims, the court process, and that estimated AED 3.8 billion hole. For investors exposed to related credit or counterparties, watch the claim verification timeline, any settlement progress, and whether additional disclosures emerge from the proceedings.
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