Financial regulator (DIFC free zone)
DFSA — Dubai Financial Services Authority
Last reviewed: 2026-09-22
How do you check whether the DFSA has taken action against a firm?
The DFSA is the independent regulator of financial services conducted in or from the DIFC. It publishes its enforcement actions — fines, restrictions, withdrawals of authorisation and public censures — and maintains a public register of the firms and individuals it authorises. An enforcement notice names the firm, so it is directly checkable.
What it publishes
- Enforcement actions and decision notices naming the firm or individual concerned.
- Fines, restrictions, licence withdrawals and public censures, with the conduct that led to them.
- A public register of DFSA-authorised firms and the activities each is permitted to carry on.
- Alerts about unauthorised firms and scams operating in or from the DIFC.
How to check its records
- Search the DFSA Public Register on dfsa.ae to confirm a firm is actually authorised, and for which activities.
- Read the enforcement section for decision notices naming the firm — the notice sets out the conduct and the penalty.
- Check the scope carefully: the DFSA regulates financial services in the DIFC only, so an unregulated trading company will legitimately have no DFSA record at all.
Counterscope coverage
Counterscope indexes published DFSA enforcement actions and resolves each named firm to its entity, so a regulatory penalty surfaces on the company profile next to its court and registry record rather than sitting in a separate regulator feed.
Official sources
Check a UAE company in one search
Counterscope turns these scattered official records into one explainable risk signal, with the evidence behind every grade.
Start free