Banking Regulations in Dubai Mainland: Complete Guide

Who may bind the company is decided by its constitutional documents and resolutions, not by job titles.

Two situations get confused, and this guide separates them: a company that wants to carry on a financial activity onshore and needs Central Bank or Securities and Commodities Authority authorisation, and an ordinary trading company trying to open an account and sign a facility. It covers the documents and signatory resolutions banks require, how security over movables is registered, guarantees given by directors, the enforcement consequences of a dishonoured cheque, and why advice written for the DIFC does not apply onshore.

By Nour Attorneys / 24 August 2026

Two different questions

Businesses in Dubai mainland ask about banking regulation for one of two reasons. Either they want to carry on a financial activity themselves — lending, payments, brokerage, money exchange — or they are an ordinary trading company trying to open an account, sign a facility and keep the relationship working. The rules that matter are different in each case, and mixing them up wastes months.

The jurisdictional point comes first. Dubai mainland is onshore. A company licensed by Dubai's economic department is regulated under federal law and litigates in the Dubai Courts in Arabic. It is not in the Dubai International Financial Centre, which is a separate common-law jurisdiction with its own courts and its own regulator, the Dubai Financial Services Authority. A DIFC licence does not authorise onshore business, and an onshore licence does not authorise DIFC business. Advice written for one is frequently, and expensively, applied to the other.

If you want to carry on a financial activity

Onshore, banks, finance companies, exchange houses, payment providers and stored-value businesses are licensed and supervised by the Central Bank of the UAE. Securities and investment activity falls to the Securities and Commodities Authority. A trade licence from the economic department records the activity; it does not grant the financial authorisation, which must be obtained separately and usually before the trade licence is finalised.

Expect the regulator to examine shareholders and ultimate beneficial owners, the fitness and propriety of the proposed directors and senior managers, the capital required for the category of activity, the business plan and the systems behind it. Senior appointments and changes of control generally need approval in advance. After licensing, the obligations are continuing: governance that can be evidenced, a compliance function with real authority, monitoring, reporting, and responsibility for anything outsourced, including to a parent company or a cloud provider.

Company structure

The corporate vehicle is constituted under the Commercial Companies Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 32 of 2021, which replaced Federal Law No. 2 of 2015. The requirement for 51% UAE-national ownership of mainland companies was removed by Federal Decree-Law No. 26 of 2020, and most mainland activities may now be wholly foreign-owned, subject to the strategic-impact list. A local service agent for the branch of a foreign company is a different arrangement and remains lawful. Financial activities carry their own approval requirements regardless of the ownership position, so no ownership change removes the need for the regulator's consent.

If you are a mainland company dealing with banks

Opening the account

Banks must identify their customer, verify ownership and control, understand the purpose of the account and assess the source of funds. For a mainland company that means the trade licence, memorandum of association, register of shareholders, board or shareholder resolution appointing signatories, Emirates ID and passports for signatories and beneficial owners, tenancy or office evidence, and enough about the business to make the expected transaction pattern credible. If the shareholder is a foreign or offshore holding company, the chart has to run up to named individuals.

Signing authority

Authority is where mainland facilities most often come unstuck. Who may bind the company is determined by its constitutional documents and the resolutions passed under them, not by job titles. Banks will ask for a resolution in the form they require, and will refuse instructions signed by someone outside it. Keep the signatory mandate updated whenever a manager or director changes; a stale mandate can stop payments at the worst possible moment.

Facilities and security

Facility documentation onshore should be read for three things in particular: the events of default and whether ordinary commercial events trigger them, the security package and how it is perfected, and the governing law and forum. Security over movable assets is registered in the federal register for security rights over movables, and an unregistered interest is worth far less than the document suggests. Personal and corporate guarantees are common and are enforced; a director who signs one should understand that it survives leaving the company unless it is expressly released.

Cheques and payment instruments

Cheques remain widely used in mainland commerce, as security for facilities and in supply arrangements. The consequences of a dishonoured cheque are not merely commercial, and the holder has enforcement routes that ordinary contract claims do not offer. Commercial dealings generally, including banking operations, sit under the Commercial Transactions Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 50 of 2022, which replaced Federal Law No. 18 of 1993. Companies that hand over undated security cheques without recording what they secure create exposure that is hard to unwind.

Anti-money laundering obligations reach the customer too

Banks apply due diligence because they are required to, and they pass the burden on. Periodic reviews, requests to refresh documents, questions about a payment to a new counterparty and screening against sanctions lists are all part of supervision, not obstruction. Accounts are frozen far more often for unanswered review requests and unexplained activity than for anything else. Keep the ownership records, the beneficial ownership register held with the licensing authority, and the account activity consistent with each other.

Data, tax and reporting

Customer and employee data handled onshore falls under the UAE Personal Data Protection Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021; DIFC and ADGM apply their own regimes, which matters when files move between an onshore company and a group entity in a financial centre. Mainland companies are within the corporate tax regime under Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022, applying to financial years starting on or after 1 June 2023, with no tax on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% above. VAT applies at 5% under Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017, as amended by Federal Decree-Law No. 18 of 2022. Banks increasingly ask for tax registration details as part of onboarding, so the corporate file and the tax file should agree.

When the relationship breaks down

Disputes with a mainland bank — recovery on a facility, enforcement of security, a closed account, a disputed debit — are heard by the Dubai Courts, in Arabic, on the Arabic text of the documents. Where the contract provides for arbitration, Federal Law No. 6 of 2018, as amended in 2023, governs arbitrations seated onshore. The DIFC-LCIA was abolished by Dubai Decree No. 34 of 2021 and its cases moved to the Dubai International Arbitration Centre, while DIFC remains available as a seat. Clauses naming institutions that no longer exist should be corrected now rather than argued about later. Where recovery has already started, advice on financial dispute resolution is more useful before the first hearing than after judgment.

Where advice helps

Mainland banking questions are rarely about a single rule. They involve the licence, the constitutional documents, the resolutions, the security and the forum, and a weakness in any one of them shows up in the others. For help with a financial licence application, a facility or security review, or a signatory and authority audit, contact the Nour Attorneys team.

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Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should seek professional legal advice tailored to their specific circumstances before making any decisions or taking any action based on the content of this article.

Nour Attorneys Team