Emirates Investment Bank has appointed Rasha Badawi as Head of Private Banking, the Dubai-based bank announced on LinkedIn, as reported by Citywire Middle East on 1 October 2026.
"As Emirates Investment Bank continues to deliver on its transformation agenda, Rasha will play a key role in shaping the future of our private banking business and further enhancing the differentiated offering we provide to our clients," the bank said.
Badawi joins from Barclays, where she led the private banking business in the UAE as CEO for almost five years, based in Dubai. Before that she spent almost a decade as Barclays' head of Qatar. Earlier in her career she held roles at J Safra Sarasin, Standard Chartered and HSBC.
The hire is the second senior appointment at the bank this year. Michel Longhini, formerly Group Head of Global Private Banking at First Abu Dhabi Bank, became Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Investment Bank in early 2026. Pairing a CEO with a long international private banking background and a private banking head with deep Gulf client coverage, including a decade running Qatar for a global bank, points to a push to build Emirates Investment Bank into a more prominent local private bank for the region's wealthy families [inferred].
The move comes as competition for senior private bankers in Dubai remains intense, with international banks including Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Bank of Singapore and Julius Baer all adding to their Gulf teams during 2026, according to Executive Moves' coverage [inferred from site coverage].
Emirates Investment Bank is a UAE private bank owned by the Al-Futtaim Group and regulated by the Central Bank of the UAE [verify].
