DIFC brokerage net profit hit a record $301 million in 2025, according to the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) Conduct Supervisory Pulse, even as the annual pace of new brokerage firms arriving at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) dropped to its lowest point in four years.
For UK investors who track global broker platforms or hold shares in listed trading venues, the numbers tell two stories at once: a hub generating record earnings and a licensing pipeline that is clearly decelerating.
DIFC Brokerage Net Profit: A Bumpy Road to the Record
The profit line has been anything but smooth. Net income across DIFC brokerages was $160 million in 2022, fell to $80 million in 2023, recovered to $218 million in 2024, and then reached $301 million in 2025, per DFSA data. The first quarter of 2026 alone added $132 million, suggesting the momentum has carried into the current year.
The firm count tells a different story. Nine new brokerages arrived in 2023, six in 2024 and four in 2025, with four more in the first quarter of 2026. The DFSA moved to cut licensing times by roughly a third over this period, yet the annual intake has still trended lower.
Finance Magnates Intelligence, applying the 2022-to-2025 compound annual growth rate of 11.6% to the 2025 brokerage total of 68 firms, puts the base case for year-end 2026 at about 76 firms, with a bear case of 73 to 74 and a bull case of 78 to 80. It assigns the highest probability to the base case and intends to revise as more 2026 data emerges.
One figure in the DFSA’s own commentary is worth flagging. The regulator describes the brokerage firm count as rising 68% since 2022, but the disclosed numbers, 49 firms in 2022 growing to 72 by end of March 2026, produce a 47% increase by simple arithmetic. Finance Magnates Intelligence uses the calculated 47% figure.
Brokerages Within a Much Larger Expansion
The brokerage sector’s record profit sits inside a broader DIFC surge. Across all regulated entity types, the DFSA Annual Report 2025 recorded 182 new firms licensed or registered in 2025, a 16% increase on 2024, lifting the total number of regulated entities to 1,050 across banking, capital markets, wealth management, insurance and fintech. That marked the third consecutive year of double-digit registration growth.
DFSA Chief Executive Mark Steward attributed the run to ‘continued confidence in DIFC and Dubai’ as the financial centre’s ecosystem broadened. Dubai also reached its highest-ever ranking on the Global Financial Centres Index in 2025, a benchmark that measures competitiveness across infrastructure, human capital, reputation and business environment.
As of 3 November 2025, the DFSA’s conduct team supervised 681 conduct firms, representing 78% of the authorised firm population, per the DFSA Annual Outreach 2025 presentation. Those firms collectively employed 65% of all staff in DIFC regulated businesses and served more than 168,000 clients.
Technology is reshaping how many of those firms operate. Artificial intelligence adoption among DFSA-regulated firms rose from 33% to 52% in 2025, according to Fintechly’s coverage of the DFSA Annual Report.
Compliance Gaps the DFSA Has Already Flagged
The same DFSA thematic review that produced the brokerage profit figures also identified weaknesses in internal controls. Eighteen per cent of surveyed firms held no documented staff-dealing policy and 32% maintained no staff-dealing register, gaps that regulators regard as basic conduct requirements.
The DFSA’s 2026 supervisory agenda, set out in the DFSA Annual Outreach 2025 deck, includes a dedicated Brokerage Thematic review focused on the oversight of the trading environment, alongside separate reviews covering suitability and fund platforms. For firms still building out their compliance infrastructure, that schedule represents a concrete timetable for scrutiny.
Pepperstone’s experience is instructive here. The Australian retail broker secured its DFSA licence only after a multi-year application, a reminder that strong aggregate growth at the hub level does not translate into a frictionless process for individual firms.
The near-term test is whether the first-quarter 2026 profit run rate of $132 million, which would annualise above $500 million if sustained, reflects genuine earnings momentum or a seasonal front-loading of activity. That question will be answered when the DFSA publishes full-year 2026 brokerage data, most likely in the second half of next year.
