Dubai International Financial Centre announced its best-ever first-half performance, led by a record intake of new firms and continued growth in employment and regulated financial services activity within the Centre. Active registered companies rose to 7,700 in H1 2025 from 6,153 a year earlier, with 1,081 new active registered companies added between January and June, while the DIFC workforce increased to 47,901 professionals. The Dubai Financial Services Authority-regulated population reached 980 entities (up 17% year-on-year) and financial services authorisations increased to 78 in H1 2025 from 61 in H1 2024. By sector, banking and capital markets firms rose to 289, wealth and asset management firms to 440 (with more than 85 hedge funds, including 69 USD billion-dollar funds, and over 10,000 funds managed or marketed from DIFC), family business-related entities to 1,035 and foundations to 842; insurance and reinsurance-related firms increased to 135, alongside reported gross written premiums of USD 3.5bn for 2024 (up from USD 2.6bn). The FinTech and Innovation community grew to 1,388 companies and total active non-financial entities increased to 6,335. DIFC also pointed to proposed new Variable Capital Company Regulations and proposed legal updates via a DIFC Laws Amendment Law covering refinements to the Law of Security, Insolvency Law and Employment Law. Looking ahead, DIFC announced Dubai Future Finance Week for May 2026 and confirmed it will host the Global Privacy Assembly 2026; it also reported more than 1.6mn sq. ft. of commercial space under development, with new space expected to be ready for occupancy starting from Q1 2026.

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