Barkha Doshi

Full Profile

Barkha specialises in non-contentious financial services, with a focus on managing extensive and cross-border regulatory mandates for international and regional banks, intermediaries, and fund managers.

Barkha's expertise extends to the emerging fintech sector in the Middle East, where she advises clients on the region's transition to a digital economy. This involves supporting regulated digital asset and payments businesses with market entry, guiding financial institutions through digital transformation, and assisting public bodies in developing regulatory frameworks.

Barkha is the lead associate for several projects related to the issuance of digital assets and payments. Additionally, she has provided advice to numerous financial institutions, fintech start-ups, and e-commerce platforms on commercial and regulatory compliance in the region. Barkha’s work also includes several crowdfunding and digital assets offering projects.

Barkha also advises clients on anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) compliance. She supports the mapping of regulatory obligations, drafting and implementation of AML/CTF policies and procedures, gap analyses and the delivery of targeted training programmes for boards and compliance functions. This work spans financial institutions, fintechs, virtual asset service providers and other regulated entities, helping clients build effective, risk-based financial crime prevention frameworks aligned with UAE Central Bank, DFSA, VARA and international FATF standards.

Barkha is a dual-qualified lawyer, admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales and registered as an advocate with the Bar Council of India.

Experience

Payments

• Assisting on one of the first open finance service providers in KSA to secure a license from the UAE Central Bank under its Open Finance regime. 
• Advising on technology service providers and financial institutions on the implications of providing short-term credit facilities under the Finance Companies Regulation.
• Acting for one of SE Asia’s largest online gaming and payment processing platforms on their cross-border payment solutions and regional licensing footprint.
• Acting for a leading regional institutional payments provider on their product structuring and roll-out, regional licensing strategy and banking partnership arrangements.
• Acting for one of the largest fintech/payments processors in China on the cross-border offering of their payment aggregation product offering into various GCC markets.
• Currently acting for several regional and international payment platform operators to secure a license from the UAE Central Bank under its Retail Payments Services regime.

Virtual assets

• Advising a regional government department on the creation of a holistic fintech regime covering all aspects of the digital asset space, conducting a global benchmarking exercise and managing a team of representatives from financial regulators to consult and finalise the scope of the regime.
• Advising on the structuring and regulatory approval of the UAE’s first digital asset backed fund and digital asset exchange traded product, on Nasdaq Dubai.
• Acting for a multinational digital securities primary issuance and secondary trading platform to structure their compliance model and obtain capital markets services and recognised market operator licenses.
• Acting for a global derivatives and crypto spot exchange on its licensing from the UAE’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority.
• Acting for several of the world’s top five crypto spot exchange and defi platforms on the licensing and regulatory treatment of key products lines across the GCC jurisdictions.

Funds

• Acting for several DIFC-based fund managers to structure and obtain the regulatory approval of their fund offerings.

Banking

• Acting for a UK bank on the structuring and regulatory treatment of a proposed digital payments offering into the market.
• Acting for a regional bank on its digital payments and open-banking service lines including engagement with multiple regulatory authorities across the region.

Commercial and regulatory compliance

• Anti-Money Laundering (AML) & Financial Crime Compliance Advising on AML/CTF programme design, enterprise-wide risk assessments, policy and procedure drafting, compliance gap analyses and staff/board training for banks, intermediaries, fintechs and VASPs. Experience includes supporting implementation of UAE AML/CFT guidance for virtual assets and payments businesses and contributing to policy and guidelines development for regional financial bodies.