Andrew Cunningham advises clients on bank risk and regulation and on corporate governance. He has experience in both developed and emerging economies, and he has particular knowledge of Middle Eastern and Shari’ah-compliant finance.
Andrew is the non-executive Chairman of ARC Ratings, a credit rating agency that focusses on structured finance transactions. The firm is regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and the European Securities and Markets Authority, and it has offices in London and Lisbon.
Andrew is a consultant to the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC’s) Middle East Corporate Governance Programme. In this capacity he conducts assessments of firms throughout the region and provides advice on how they can strengthen their governance frameworks and practices.
He has performed similar roles for DEG, the German development finance agency, CDC, the British development finance agency, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
For example, Andrew was part of a CDC Due Diligence Team that was considering whether to make an investment in an Asian micro-finance bank. Andrew worked alongside the deal team to provide a specialist assessment of the bank’s corporate governance strengths and weaknesses.
Andrew lectures on Corporate Governance and Risk to Boards and to groups of Directors. He provides guidance on new trends in corporate governance, including new expectations that are being placed on Directors; and on how the risk landscape is changing for banks and commercial firms. In October 2024, he lectured on Financial Crime at the Saudi Financial Academy in Riyadh. In June 2023, he delivered a two-day course to non-executive Directors of Maltese banks, explaining latest trends in bank governance.
He is a regular visitor to Bahrain, where he lectures at the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance.
More detail on Andrew Cunningham’s Qualifications
Andrew has worked extensively on Islamic Finance. He has recently finished writing a Guidance Note on Digital Finance and Islamic banks for the Council for Islamic Banks and Islamic Financial Institutions (CIBAFI) and is currently writing a Guidance Note on how Islamic banks should prepare for and respond to severe exogenous shocks. In 2021, he supported the work of the United Nations Development to create a state-sponsored Zakat programme in Mauritania. The project entailed drafting regulations for the Mauritanian Ministry of Finance based on best practices used by Zakat organisations worldwide.
Andrew has developed and delivered specialist seminars on Bank Analysis and Advanced Bank Regulatory Capital Analysis for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and for the European Investment Bank (EIB). He also developed and delivered courses on Capital Consumption and Planning for EIB’s Operations staff and on Banking Best Practices for EIB’s Internal Audit Department.
Andrew writes a regular Opinion column for Arabian Gulf Business Insight (AGBI), the Dubai-based business news portal.
From 2013 until December 2025, Andrew was Editor-in-Chief of the London Arab Bankers Association, and in this capacity, he re-launched and then produced Arab Banker, the Association’s annual magazine.
Andrew Cunningham began his career as a journalist, writing about Middle East banking and finance for Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) and then for Middle East Economic Survey (MEES). He then spent nine years with Moody’s, the credit rating agency, both as a credit analysist, assigning ratings to Middle Eastern and large Western European banks, and as the European manager of its Rating Assessment Service and as a member of the firm’s global Liquidity Risk Assessment committee.
Andrew Cunningham began his career as a journalist, writing about Middle East banking and finance for Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) and then for Middle East Economic Survey (MEES). He then spent nine years with Moody’s, the credit rating agency, both as a credit analysist, assigning ratings to Middle Eastern and large Western European banks, and as the European manager of its Rating Assessment Service and as a member of the firm’s global Liquidity Risk Assessment committee.
In 2004, Andrew moved to Cairo to establish and manage the Egyptian and broader regional operations of the Financial Services Volunteer Corps (FSVC), a New York-based NGO that provided consulting advance to central banks, capital market regulators, and commercial banks. In 2006, he moved to the firm’s head office to manage the entire Middle East franchise that, under his leadership, expanded to account for two thirds of the firm’s revenues and activities.
Andrew is proficient in French and Arabic: he can (and does) conduct business meetings in both these languages and he can read documents with ease. He has a good working knowledge of Greek.
Andrew lives in London.
CONTACT ANDREW CUNNINGHAM
andrew@darienanalytics.com
He Tweets as @ACunningham29