Dubai’s financial regulator has flagged widespread compliance failures among the city’s surging brokerage sector, warning that personal trading controls have not kept pace with explosive growth. The Dubai Financial Services Authority published findings Monday showing eighteen percent of firms lack any documented policy on staff personal dealing, while thirty-two percent maintain no register of employee trades whatsoever. The review arrives as authorized brokerages in the Dubai International Financial Centre jumped sixty-eight percent to seventy-two firms since 2022, with headcount nearly doubling and combined net profit soaring from eighty million dollars in 2023 to three hundred one million in 2025. The regulator uncovered discrepancies between firms’ self-reported compliance records and independent findings, including one case where breaches occurred but none were logged. The authority called inadequate controls a marker of weak governance and oversight. This opening phase targets personal dealing, with best execution and communications record-keeping reviews scheduled for later in 2026.
FXnCO Insight
Brokers operating in or considering DIFC expansion should audit personal trading frameworks immediately, as regulatory scrutiny intensifies ahead of the wider 2026 compliance review.
Source: Finance Magnates