UAE Capital Market Authority Licensed 68 Firms in Nine Months, Targets Seven-Day Approvals

The total number of firms licensed by the federal regulator was 43% higher than a year earlier, and the number of accredited professionals rose 64% over the same period, Al Awadhi said. He said the authority is running a project to process applications that meet all requirements within seven working days, and is using artificial intelligence as part of a redesign of its licensing and staff accreditation procedures intended to strip out unnecessary paperwork.

The figures show how fast the onshore UAE financial sector is adding firms, and how the regulator plans to speed up entry for international institutions without relaxing its checks. Vetting still involves other jurisdictions: the authority sent more than 250 fit-and-proper verification requests to foreign regulators during the nine months, Al Awadhi said.

He gave a set of market figures for the period. Trading on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and the Dubai Financial Market came to about AED 408.2 billion, with foreign investors responsible for 49% of the value traded. Listed companies raised about AED 3.4 billion through capital increases. The number of local investment funds rose 94% year on year to 97, and their assets under management grew 30% to AED 28.6 billion.

Al Awadhi argued that market health should not be judged on individual investment flows alone, but on a wider set of measures including liquidity, the breadth of the investor base and whether trading activity is sustained. Attracting long-term foreign capital, he said, depends on clear rules, reliable disclosure and effective protection of investors' rights.

On new listings, he said the authority approved the share offering of DIP Holding, the owner of Dubai Investments Park, which announced in October that it would float part of its capital on the Dubai Financial Market. Khaleej Times described it as the UAE's first IPO of 2026. Al Awadhi said the authority's priority with new offerings was making sure companies are ready, that their disclosures are of good quality and that they meet regulatory requirements.

The regulator's legislative agenda includes rules for an investor protection fund, criteria for designating systemically important entities to allow earlier supervisory intervention, and a framework for splitting public joint-stock companies. It is also drafting rules for public joint-stock companies that want to move their registration from a free zone to the mainland. Licensed firms are now subject to capital requirements aligned with the Basel III standards, and the authority is developing corporate governance disclosure requirements, Al Awadhi said.

The authority has also teamed up with the Middle East Investor Relations Association on a programme to train more than 100 Emirati investor relations specialists.

For 2027, Al Awadhi said the authority will focus its regulatory and supervisory work on emerging technologies, including the tokenisation of assets, along with clearer licensing routes for qualified international financial institutions and better mechanisms for cross-border market access.