#1
Amana Capital Ltd
RegulatedUnited Arab EmiratesEst. 2010FCA
Regulation
License
Spread
67.4Score
Thirty-two brokers in the WIKILIX records give the United Arab Emirates as their home country, and this page lists all of them, ordered by overall score. Being based in the UAE is a fact about where a company is registered. It is not the same as holding a UAE licence, and it says nothing about which nationalities a broker will actually open an account for.
The oldest firm here, Orient Financial Brokers, opened in 1994. The newest, ADS, arrived in 2025 already carrying FCA and SFC licences. Between them sit local bank arms like Mashreq and Daman, a cluster of recent retail brands, and Amana Capital, which at 67.4 is the highest-scoring broker on the page and the only one holding a Dubai DFSA licence.
Mainland SCA versus the Dubai and Abu Dhabi free zones
The Emirates run two kinds of oversight at once, and it changes what a licence here is worth. The Securities and Commodities Authority, the SCA, supervises firms on the mainland, and thirteen of the brokers on this list hold an SCA registration. The free zones sit outside that system: the Dubai Financial Services Authority regulates inside the DIFC, and Abu Dhabi Global Market does the same in the capital. ADSS and Finior Capital are authorised by ADGM. Four firms here, Amana, ADS, ADSS and GTCFX, also hold a tier-1 licence from abroad such as the FCA or ASIC, which counts for more than a free-zone registration on its own.
A registered address is not a supervision stamp
A UAE address tells you where the paperwork sits, not that the firm is watched. Sixteen of these thirty-two carry a WIKILIX status of regulation. The other sixteen are flagged: thirteen as holding no regulation we can find, two as running on an offshore licence issued elsewhere, and one for exceeding the scope of its permission. The flagged firms lean recent. Thirteen of the 32 opened in 2020 or later, part of a wave of brands that set up a UAE presence without a matching local licence, while only ten of the firms here date from before 2010.
Why the big Dubai-licensed names are missing
Most of the brokers a trader in the Emirates actually compares are not on this list, and that is what the page is for. The large international names that advertise a Dubai licence are headquartered abroad, usually in Australia or the United Kingdom, so their registered address keeps them off a domicile list even when they hold a DFSA authorisation and take UAE clients. The reverse holds too. Several firms below are local securities houses that trade Emirati equities for residents and never offer a leveraged currency account to anyone. Read the licence, not the address.
Before you open an account with a UAE firm
- Check which entity you are contracting with. A group can register a mainland SCA company and a separate free-zone one, and the protection differs between them.
- Match the licence to the product. An SCA permission to trade local shares is not authorisation to sell you leveraged forex.
- Confirm the licence on the regulator's own register before you deposit. Each of the three UAE authorities publishes a public list you can search by name.
- Treat a high leverage cap as a caution rather than a perk. Three firms here advertise leverage as high as 1:1000, a level no tier-1 regulator allows.
34brokers on this list
Researched & ranked by the Wikilix team
- #2
ADS
RegulatedUnited Arab EmiratesEst. 2025SCA
RegulationLicenseSpread58.9Score - #3
Shenzhou Capital Ltd
RegulatedUnited Arab EmiratesEst. 2009BaFin
RegulationLicenseSpread53.8Score - #4
Money Wave Limited
No RegulationUnited Arab EmiratesEst. 202250.0Score - #5
ADS Securities LLC
RegulatedUnited Arab EmiratesEst. 2010ADGMRegulationLicenseSpread48.9Score - #6
Finior Capital Limited
RegulatedUnited Arab EmiratesEst. 2018ADGMRegulationLicenseSpread46.2Score - #7
WEBFOX LTD
No RegulationUnited Arab EmiratesEst. 202346.0Score - #8
QuoMarkets
No RegulationUnited Arab EmiratesEst. 202045.0Score - #9
dreem fx
No RegulationUnited Arab EmiratesEst. 202341.5Score - #10
GTC Global Trade Capital Co. Limited
No RegulationUnited Arab EmiratesEst. 201239.5Score - #11
FX-SmartBull Limited
No RegulationUnited Arab EmiratesEst. 202139.0Score - #12
Finsai Trade Ltd
No RegulationUnited Arab EmiratesEst. 201539.0Score
This page rebuilds itself from the home-country field WIKILIX holds for each broker, so a firm that moves its registration into or out of the UAE appears or drops off without anyone editing the text. The licences shown are the ones on record as of today. Before you deposit with any broker here, confirm its current standing on the SCA, DFSA or ADGM register directly, because a licence can lapse between our checks.
If you came to sort brokers by who supervises them rather than where they sit, the regulator rankings are the better starting point, and the FCA list covers one of the authorities several of these UAE firms also answer to. For the offshore end of the map, the pages on brokers based in Seychelles, Mauritius and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines show where the unregulated brands on this list often hold a second registration. The South Africa and India domicile pages make a closer regional comparison, each separating a registered address from an actual licence the same way this one does.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently asked questions
Answers from the Wikilix research team about this ranking.
Most Popular Questions
It means the firm is registered in the UAE but relies on a licence issued somewhere else, usually an offshore centre with lighter oversight. Two brokers here, STAR NET and Fiper, sit in that position, both flagged as offshore. The UAE address gives no local protection in that case, so the offshore regulator is the one that matters.
Because this page is built on home country, not on who holds a Dubai licence. The large international brands that advertise DFSA authorisation are headquartered in Australia, the United Kingdom or elsewhere, so their registered address keeps them off a UAE domicile list even when they actively take Emirati clients. You will find them on their own home-country page instead.
Four of the 32: Amana Capital, ADS, ADSS and GTCFX. Each holds at least one tier-1 licence from outside the UAE, such as an FCA, ASIC or SFC authorisation, on top of any local registration. Amana also carries a Dubai DFSA licence and posts the highest score on the page at 67.4.
Not necessarily. Where a broker is based tells you where it is registered, not which nationalities it will open an account for. Some firms on this list serve only UAE residents trading local shares, while others take clients from abroad. The reliable answer is the broker's own account terms, which you should read before depositing.
The SCA, the Securities and Commodities Authority, licenses firms on the UAE mainland. The DFSA and ADGM regulate inside the Dubai and Abu Dhabi free zones, which run under their own rulebooks rather than the SCA's. Your protection depends on which of these authorised the specific entity holding your account, so the mainland and free-zone arms of one group are not interchangeable.
No. Sixteen of the 32 carry a WIKILIX status of regulation, while thirteen hold no regulation we can find, two run on an offshore licence issued outside the UAE, and one is flagged for exceeding the scope of its permission. A registered address in the Emirates does not mean a firm is supervised there.
Orient Financial Brokers, which opened in 1994 and holds an SCA registration, is the oldest firm on this list. Daman Markets follows from 1998 and Mashreq's securities arm from 2001. Only ten of the 32 brokers here opened before 2010, so a long UAE track record is the exception rather than the rule.
Thirty-two, and this page lists every one of them. Sixteen carry a WIKILIX status of regulation and the other sixteen are flagged, so the number of genuinely supervised firms is smaller than the headline figure. The oldest opened in 1994, and thirteen of the 32 have arrived since 2020.