Dubai Financial Services Authority. 10 of the 139 brokers in our researched set (7%) currently hold a licence from this regulator, computed live from the same dataset behind every review and ranking on this site.
| Jurisdiction | Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) -- a defined financial free zone, distinct from the UAE's wider federal regulators |
|---|---|
| Leverage rules | Raised minimum margin requirements for retail clients effective 6 December 2021: 3.33% margin (30:1 leverage) on major FX pairs, 5% (20:1) on gold, and 10% (10:1) on oil -- confirmed against this site's own UAE country-page research. A 2025 industry report instead cited a 50:1 retail cap on majors, which conflicts with the 2021 margin rule; treat that higher figure as unconfirmed or possibly outdated. These limits don't apply to clients who qualify for and elect Professional classification, who can reportedly access much higher leverage. |
| Investor compensation | No statutory compensation scheme. |
| Complaint process | DFSA-authorised firms must have their own adequate complaint-handling mechanism, and a client disputes the firm directly first. The DFSA itself will consider a written complaint about specific matters (integrity and fair dealing, corporate governance failures, or misuse of the DIFC/DFSA name), but it isn't a general-purpose ombudsman for every type of client dispute. No DFSA-administered investor compensation scheme for retail CFD/forex client losses was confirmed -- its framework centres on licensing, capital, and client-money segregation rather than a standing compensation fund. |
| Official register | Search the DFSA's public register of authorised firms → |
See our full DFSA regulation guide for what this licence does and doesn't guarantee.
We track that each broker below discloses a DFSA licence, but not the specific licence number or which legal entity holds it -- that detail isn't consistently available in our research for this regulator. See the broker's own review for whatever entity/licence detail it discloses directly.