This prohibition was lifted on 15 July 2021 and is no longer in effect.

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) announced that it has imposed restrictions on FFA Private Bank (Dubai) Limited (FFA) prohibiting it from receiving, arranging or executing orders from or on behalf of specific clients.

The DFSA imposed the restrictions by way of a prohibition due to concerns about the adequacy of its systems and controls to identify, assess and report trading giving rise to suspicions of market abuse relating to certain clients.  The prohibition will remain in place until FFA is able to demonstrate that it has addressed these weaknesses. FFA is cooperating with the DFSA to resolve the issues.

Bryan Stirewalt, Chief Executive of the DFSA, commented: “The DFSA will take strong action to protect the integrity of financial markets. We will not hesitate to restrict the activities of firms where there are concerns over the adequacy of their processes to prevent or detect market abuse. The DFSA is committed to protecting the interests of users of financial markets.”

The DFSA’s public register has been updated to reflect the license restrictions, by noting the word restriction against FFA’s licence entry, and a decision notice has been issued on its website.

A copy of the DFSA's Decision Notice can be found in the Regulatory Actions section of the DFSA website.