Where your GCC broker is actually regulated, and how to check

There are several financial regulators operating in the Gulf and they are not interchangeable. A licence from one does not confer permissions in another's jurisdiction, and the protections attached to each differ.

This walks through what the registers actually say for two platforms Gulf investors commonly compare, what a licence covers, and how to check any firm yourself in about two minutes.

Who regulates what

The DIFC and ADGM points are the ones most often misread. Both are financial free zones with their own legal systems and their own regulators. A DFSA licence authorises a firm to operate in and from the DIFC. It is a real licence with real supervision behind it, and it is not a UAE-wide authorisation, nor does it say anything about Saudi Arabia.

What the DFSA register says about baraka

The DFSA maintains a public register and it is searchable. For baraka, the entry is specific:

• Entity: Baraka Financial Limited
• Reference: F006586
• Licensed: 2 June 2021
• Status: DIFC company, permitted to deal with Retail Clients
• Permissions: Dealing in Investments as Agent, Arranging Deals in Investments, Advising on Financial Products, Managing Assets, Arranging Credit and Advising on Credit, and Arranging Custody
• Endorsements: carrying on authorised financial services with or for Retail Clients, Holding or Controlling Client Assets, and Operating an Islamic Window

That is a full retail-facing authorisation from a well-regarded regulator, and the retail client permission matters, not every DFSA-licensed firm has it.

What it is not is a Saudi licence. We looked for a CMA Saudi authorisation for baraka and did not find one, and baraka does not appear in Saudi Exchange's member directory.

What the Saudi side looks like

Sahm Capital's licence details are stated in its own service agreement, which is a reasonable primary source for a firm's own registration:

• Entity: Sahm Capital Financial Company
• Commercial registration: 1010774084
• CMA licence: 22251-25, issued 19 October 2022
• Operations commenced 1 October 2023; Tadawul member from 29 November 2023

Sahm's own FAQ describes the licence as covering "Dealing, Advising and Custody services in Saudi Arabia". The CMA separately announced in October 2024 a licence for "Arranging, and Managing Investments and Operating Funds", approved in February 2024.

Derayah Financial appears in Saudi Exchange's member directory, which is itself a useful check — exchange membership is a separate and publicly listed fact from a regulatory licence, and a firm executing on Tadawul needs both.

One caution if you go looking at fee schedules: Derayah's live pricing page shows zero commission on Tadawul, while an older PDF still hosted on its own domain shows a superseded 0.12% schedule with a SAR 12 minimum. Two documents on one website, disagreeing. Take the live page, and treat any fee PDF without an effective date on it as unreliable regardless of whose site it sits on.

What a licence does and does not cover

This is where most of the confusion sits.

A licence covers conduct, not outcomes. Supervision means capital requirements, client money rules, conduct standards, complaints handling and a regulator that can act. It does not mean your investment is protected from falling in value, which is obvious, and it does not mean there is a compensation scheme, which is not.

Permissions are specific. A firm authorised for Advising is not thereby authorised for Managing Assets. The register lists which activities each firm may perform, and that list repays a read rather than an assumption. baraka's DFSA entry, for instance, lists four separately named permissions plus two endorsements.

Retail permission is a distinct thing. Some firms are authorised to deal only with professional clients. If you are a retail investor, the register entry should say so.

Jurisdiction is where the firm operates from, not where you live. A DFSA-licensed firm in the DIFC serving a client in Riyadh is operating from the DIFC. Which regulator you would complain to, and under whose rules, follows from the firm's authorisation.

Regulation and market access are separate questions

A licence tells you who supervises the firm. It does not tell you which markets you can reach through it, and those are genuinely different questions.

A resident of Saudi Arabia can trade Tadawul directly — Saudi Exchange states that an investor "will need to be a Saudi or GCC national or a registered Saudi Arabian resident", and an iqama holder qualifies. Derayah states that iqama holders can open an account electronically through Absher.

Meanwhile, whether a Saudi resident can reach Tadawul through Interactive Brokers is not published. IBKR has a Saudi Exchange page describing an alliance with SNB Capital and calling itself "the first international broker to offer foreign retail clients access to the Saudi Exchange", but it does not state which client residencies are eligible and publishes no Saudi commission rates. We have checked twice, weeks apart.

So: two licensed firms, and the question of which one gets you into a given market has to be answered separately from the question of who regulates them.

How to check any firm in two minutes

1. Find the legal entity name. Not the brand. It is in the footer, the terms and conditions, or the account agreement. "baraka" is Baraka Financial Limited; "Sahm" is Sahm Capital Financial Company.
2. Find the claimed regulator and reference number. Usually in the same place.
3. Search that regulator's own public register. The DFSA, the CMAs and the QFMA all publish one. Do not take the firm's word for its own status — look it up.
4. Read the permissions. Check that the activities listed cover what you intend to do, and that retail clients are included.
5. Check exchange membership separately where you intend to trade a specific market. Saudi Exchange publishes a member directory; the Qatar Stock Exchange publishes its seven brokers with their permissions; the CMA Kuwait register distinguishes brokers registered on the exchange from firms merely licensed for brokerage.

That last distinction is a useful one and it is easy to miss. In Kuwait, the CMA register lists brokers registered on Boursa Kuwait — Al-Awal, Al-Tijari, Kuwait Financial Brokerage, Middle East Financial Brokerage, Al-Wasit, Al-Watan, Hermes Eva, KFIC — separately from roughly twenty-five further firms licensed for securities brokerage but not registered on the exchange, including Burgan Bank and NCM Investment. Both categories are licensed; only one has direct exchange access.

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Nothing here suggests a problem with any of the firms named. baraka's DFSA authorisation is a full retail licence from a serious regulator. Sahm and Derayah hold Saudi CMA licences and Tadawul access. These are all properly authorised businesses.

The point is narrower and it is about how you compare them. Two platforms that both serve Gulf investors, both look similar in an app store, and both are legitimately licensed can be supervised by different regulators in different jurisdictions with different permissions attached. That difference determines which rules apply to your account, who you complain to, and which markets you can reach.

It also determines what a comparison is actually comparing. Describing one platform as the Saudi option and another as the Dubai option is a reasonable shorthand right up until a firm adds a second licence, at which point the shorthand quietly stops being true.

The register is public, it is free, and it takes two minutes. One practical tip from doing this: search by the legal entity name rather than the brand. We looked for Sahm Capital on the DFSA register and found nothing, because the DIFC entity is registered as Sahm Financial Limited. A group's app, its Saudi company and its DIFC company can all carry different names.

Common questions

Next steps

1. Find the legal entity name of every platform you use — it is in the footer or the terms, not the branding.
2. Look each one up on its regulator's own public register rather than relying on the firm's own claim.
3. Read the permissions listed, and check that retail clients are covered.
4. Check exchange membership separately for any market you specifically want to trade.
5. Do not infer a compensation scheme from the word "regulated" — supervision and compensation are different things.

Further reading on ExpatWealthPlus

• What DFSA regulation actually means
• Derayah or Sahm Capital
• baraka review
• Saudi market access for residents
• Investment platforms across the GCC

Official sources

Every figure in this article is checked against the primary source. These are the places to verify the current position for yourself, since rates, rules and product terms change.

• DFSA public register — Baraka Financial Limited →Reference F006586, licensed 2 June 2021, retail client permission and endorsements
• Sahm Capital — licence and permissions →CMA licence 22251-25 and Tadawul membership from 29 November 2023
• CMA Saudi Arabia — Sahm Capital licence announcement →The arranging, managing investments and operating funds licence
• Saudi Exchange — member directory →Which firms are exchange members, a separate check from licensing
• CMA Kuwait — licensed companies →Brokers registered on the exchange, distinguished from firms merely licensed
• Qatar Stock Exchange — licensed brokers →All seven member firms with their individual permissions