Get your DIFC-licensed firm IT-compliant with DFSA expectations.
The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) regulates financial services firms in the DIFC. Its rule book sets explicit IT, cyber, and outsourcing expectations through the General Module, Conduct of Business, Authorisation Module, and the thematic cyber-risk reviews of recent years. Your IT environment is part of your DFSA posture. We deliver IT-control implementation, evidence, and ongoing operations against DFSA expectations.
- DFSAAware design
- GENGeneral module
- COBConduct of business
- CyberThematic ready
Nine areas of DFSA expectation, operationalised.
Identity and access controls
Microsoft Entra ID with hardware-token or biometric MFA, conditional access, privileged access management with just-in-time elevation, joiners-movers-leavers process, quarterly access reviews.
Monitoring and SOC
24/7 monitoring with Microsoft Sentinel, DFSA-grade alert rules, signal correlation across endpoint, identity, email, cloud. Monthly threat hunt and quarterly red-team drill.
Audit trails and log retention
Immutable audit logs across all material systems. Retention aligned to DFSA expectation (typically 6+ years for transaction records). Tamper-evident storage with chain of custody.
Incident management and DFSA notification
Written incident-response playbook, severity matrix, DFSA notification template, escalation chain to senior management and the Designated Director, quarterly tabletop exercises.
Cyber resilience and BCM
Business continuity management plan with IT components, disaster recovery for critical systems, annual BCM drill, RTO/RPO documented per critical system, DR site or cloud-based equivalent.
Outsourcing notification and oversight
Outsourcing register, vendor risk assessments, outsourcing notification packs ready for supervisor submission, contractual data-residency and incident-notification clauses, exit plans.
Data residency and cloud governance
Azure UAE-region deployment by default for client data. M365 tenant data geo-pinned where Microsoft offers UAE residency. Documented data flows and cross-border transfer assessments.
AML, KYC, transaction-monitoring IT
IT support for AML platforms, KYC systems, transaction-monitoring rule engines, sanctions screening. Integration-health monitoring, false-positive triage workflow.
Trading-system reliability
Dealing-room IT, near-zero-downtime upgrade patterns, market-data feed health, dealer-desk peak-hour standby. Change-freeze windows aligned to trading calendar.
Four reasons DFSA-regulated firms consolidate IT with GR.
DFSA-vocabulary IT
We work with DFSA-licensed firms across Category 2, 3, and 4 designations. We understand outsourcing notification, the Designated Director role, MLRO IT interactions, and what a DFSA thematic review asks for. Our deliverables map to DFSA-recognisable evidence shapes.
Microsoft-stack depth with financial tilt
Defender XDR, Purview, Priva, Sentinel, Entra all configured to financial-services baselines, not generic SMB defaults. Conditional access rules, retention policies, and audit-trail completeness sized to DFSA expectations.
Engineers based in Business Bay, not offshore
Sensitive financial conversations stay onshore. Named UAE engineers running your tenant, no offshore L1 desk, no ticket bouncing between time zones, no jurisdictional concerns over engineer location.
Trading-day rhythm and change discipline
Change-freeze windows aligned to market hours, weekend maintenance windows, dealer-desk peak coverage. The IT calendar respects your trading calendar without being asked.
Six DFSA-licensed firm profiles.
Category 2 firms
Asset managers, broker-dealers, advisors dealing with retail clients. Higher capital and operational expectations.
Category 3 firms
Asset management, advisory, arranging. Most common DFSA category, broad IT-expectation set.
Category 4 firms
Advice and arranging only. Lighter operational footprint but full IT control expectation.
Family offices
Single-family and multi-family offices in DIFC. Reporting infrastructure, secure document exchange with family principals, multi-client segregation.
Crypto and VASP firms
DFSA-regulated virtual-asset service providers. Custody-platform operating environment, FATF Travel Rule integration, key-management discipline.
Fintech sandbox graduates
Firms transitioning from DFSA Innovation Testing Licence to full authorisation. Build the IT control baseline that supports full licensing.
Three ways to handle DFSA IT, with trade-offs.
| Feature | GR DFSA-aware IT | Generic SMB MSP | In-house IT (small firm) |
|---|---|---|---|
DFSA rule-book literacy | Varies | ||
Outsourcing notification pack | Self-built | ||
Microsoft Sentinel SOC | Rare | Possible | |
DFSA-grade audit trails | Best effort | ||
Quarterly evidence pack | Effort | ||
Trading-day calendar awareness | Internal | ||
BCM/DR drill support | Annual | ||
AML/KYC IT support | Required | ||
Engineer location | Business Bay, named | Offshore | In-house |
From rule-book mapping to ongoing supervision-ready operations.
- 1
DFSA-aware audit
2-3 weeks
Map current IT against DFSA expectations: GEN module, COB, AUT, AMI, and recent thematic-review findings. Output: written gap report mapped to rule-book references with prioritised remediation roadmap.
- 2
Foundation build
4-8 weeks
Identity baseline, PAM model, Sentinel SOC operational, audit-log retention reconfigured, outsourcing register populated, BCM/DR plan updated, incident-response playbook written.
- 3
Operational embedding
2-3 weeks
Quarterly evidence-pack cadence agreed, change-freeze calendar aligned to trading schedule, escalation matrix wired to Designated Director and senior management.
- 4
Supervision-ready quarterly cycle
Ongoing
Quarterly evidence pack, vulnerability scan, threat-hunt report, vendor-risk-register refresh, BCM drill cycle. Annual full DFSA-readiness review ahead of thematic-review windows.
“We are a Category 3 asset manager in DIFC. Our last DFSA thematic cyber review surfaced eight material findings: identity, audit trails, outsourcing oversight, BCM testing. GR rebuilt our environment in twelve weeks: Entra-based access, Sentinel monitoring, Purview classification, outsourcing register, refreshed BCM. Our next thematic review closed at zero material findings. We attribute that directly to the engagement.”
What DFSA firms ask before engaging.
Services that pair with DFSA IT engagements.
Cybersecurity Audit and Compliance
Broader security posture review including DFSA-specific controls assessment.
Microsoft Sentinel
Cloud SIEM used as the monitoring substrate for DFSA-aware SOC operations.
IT Services for Fintech
Broader fintech and financial-services IT services, including ADGM and SCA contexts.
Book a DFSA-aware IT audit and get a written gap report.
A two-to-three week structured audit mapped to DFSA rule-book references and recent thematic-review findings. Output: written gap report, evidence-pack template, and prioritised remediation roadmap.
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