DIFC

Professional Services Providers

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Alongside the tremendous growth in demand for financial services across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region is the parallel need for professional services providers.

This urgency of this need is driven by increasingly sophisticated specialist financial services and advisory work. This is augmented by expanded cross-jurisdictional trade and transactions, and the ongoing restructuring by state-owned enterprises, corporations and private entities.

As the financial hub for the MEASA region, DIFC offers these firms the ideal platform to serve this market, while also providing direct access to the region’s largest concentration of local, regional and international clients.

By establishing operations in DIFC, professional services providers can centralise and consolidate the resources used to service the region, thereby gaining a competitive cost of operation.

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Advantages of setting up in DIFC

DIFC is the unrivalled financial hub of the region, with an established and tested legal and regulatory framework. Safe and stable, Dubai is a global city and business, trade and tourism centre that is fully connected to regional and global markets.

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DIFC is at the heart of regional deal making

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World-class offices and infrastructure for servicing customers across the MEASA region

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High concentration of firms in banking, capital markets, reinsurance, Islamic finance, and wealth and asset management

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Legal and Regulatory Framework

Although operating independently, the DIFC Authority, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) and the Dispute Resolution Authority (DRA) serve a common goal: reinforcing DIFC’s principles of integrity, transparency and efficiency.  

The DIFC Authority is responsible for the guiding strategy, ongoing development and overall public administration of DIFC. The DFSA is the globally recognised independent regulator of financial services conducted in or from DIFC. The DRA provides an English-language, commercial common law judicial system, as well as a dispute resolution platform, and other services to deliver legal excellence in the Middle East.

Register in Three Steps

Simple and straightforward licensing, registration and regulation, makes setting up and operating in DIFC fast and efficient. 

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01

Discuss your proposed professional services operations with DFSA and DIFC service advisors

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Submit application documents 

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Receive approvals for licenses, visas and consent notifications 

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Download additional information about operating as a professional services provider in DIFC.

Service Providers Brochure

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