Financial services and fintech · UAE
Financial services and fintech firms in the UAE may promote only what an authorised firm has made or approved. DIFC, ADGM and the mainland run that rule separately.
Find out who has to sign your marketingBefore the media plan
Four facts settle a financial campaign before a channel is chosen. Each one comes from a regulator’s own instrument, not from agency practice.
The capital-market decree lists Promotion among the activities the Capital Market Authority licenses, and Article 3(2) bars anyone from carrying one on without its licence or approval. Doing it unlicensed is a criminal offence rather than a compliance finding.
The federal decree says at Article 2(4)(d) that it does not apply to the financial free zones, and each zone writes its own restriction. So a group with a DIFC entity and a mainland entity sits inside two rulebooks at once, and one campaign cannot serve both unless it is written twice.
In the DIFC a financial promotion must be clear, fair and not misleading, and must state the promoter’s name, address and regulatory status. Where an authorised firm has approved it, the promotion must also say it was approved by that firm, prominently.
The Central Bank’s standards stop licensed institutions marketing loans and financing to individual consumers by telephone, and treat a consumer as opted out until they opt in. Half of a standard outbound plan is unavailable before it is costed.
Marketing a licensed product
Demand, the promotion itself and the enquiry it produces are each gated by a permission. The permission is the schedule, and the creative is built around it.
Paid and organic demand exists for every regulated product here, and much of it sits in a category the platforms gate before a regulator does. The addressable half is smaller than the market, and it is knowable in advance.
The name, the address and the regulatory status go on the promotion itself, and so does the approval line where another firm approved it. A page that reads as a promotion and carries none of that is the first thing anyone checks.
An enquiry that arrives without consent, or through a channel the firm may not use, cannot be worked at all. Capture is built so the first call back is one the firm is allowed to make.
The permission question
Every financial promotion here is made from one of three positions. Which one you are in decides whose name goes on it, and who signs before it runs.
| You are authorisedYour own licence covers the promotion | Nobody has authorised itThen it cannot be a promotion at all | An authorised firm approvesTheir name goes on it, and it stays their responsibility | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whose name is on it | Yours. The promotion states your name, address and regulatory status. | Yours, and it has to stop short of inviting or inducing anyone. | Both. Yours as the brand, theirs as the firm that approved it. |
| What the creative says | Clear, fair and not misleading, with the status line on the face of it. | Information only. No offer, no application, no invitation to invest. | The same, plus a prominent statement that it is approved by that firm. |
| Who signs before it runs | Your own compliance function, on your own record. | Nobody can. Publishing it as a promotion is itself the offence. | The approving firm, named on the material and booked into the date. |
| When the page changes | You re-check it. The obligation sits with your own function. | A change that adds an invitation turns it into a promotion. | It goes back. Their approval has to hold on an ongoing basis. |
| Past performance | Balanced view, sourced figures, and a prominent warning on retail material. | Better left out. A performance claim reads as an inducement. | The approver checks it, and will not sign a set they cannot source. |
The DFSA requires an approving firm to keep an approved promotion compliant on an ongoing basis, so a live page, a running ad set and a landing page edited last week are all still on its file. Webzenia builds the schedule around that, with the approver named on every item and a review date beside it. A finance creator posting to a UAE audience needs registration with the CMA as well as the Advertiser Permit that marketing in Dubai sets out. Dubai holds the DIFC and Abu Dhabi the ADGM.
Inside the engagement
Each of these is scoped by what your firm may say. The approval route is designed once and then maintained, and that is where the retained work sits.
Google, Meta and LinkedIn campaigns built for a category the platforms gate before any regulator does, with the certifications and disclaimers each one asks for
campaigns that survive review instead of stopping after the spend
Explainers, comparisons and market notes written to stop short of an invitation or an inducement, so organic keeps publishing while the promotional material is still with the approver
a publishing line that does not wait
The site scoped as the financial promotion it already is, with the status line, the promoter details, the risk warnings and the approval statement placed where a reader and a regulator both look
a site you can send to compliance
Templates holding the name, the address, the regulatory status and the approved-by line at the size the rules require, so an approval is a signature rather than a rebuild
creative the approver can sign the first time
A creator programme where the register is checked and the permits are confirmed before a brief is issued, and where the recommendation stays with the person registered to make it
an influencer plan that can be published
Reporting that ties spend to enquiries a licensed person could act on, with the capture consented and the channel recorded against each one
one number the marketing lead and the compliance officer both accept
The honest scope
Webzenia runs the marketing and makes sure what it publishes carries what the rules require. Webzenia is not an authorised firm and cannot approve a financial promotion.
This is for you if
It is not the right fit if
What you keep
Everything below is yours at handover. The promotion register is the one to ask for first: it shows what is live, who approved it and when.
What we hold to
None of these is a house rule. Each one is a line in an instrument the regulator publishes, and the licensed firm is the one carrying the liability.
Nothing publishes before the approval
No promotion goes live before the firm that has to approve it has done so, in writing. Where a date cannot be met, the date moves and the material stays as it is.
The status line goes on the promotion
The promoter’s name, address and regulatory status appear on every promotion we produce, and the approved-by statement wherever another firm approved it.
No performance claim without the warning
Past performance runs only with a balanced view, the source of the figures, and the prominent warning that it is not a reliable indicator of what comes next.
No outbound calls about consumer financing
The Central Bank prohibits marketing loans and financing to individual consumers by telephone. We do not plan it, we do not buy it, and we say so before the budget is split.
Consent before capture
Contact data is captured on consent and used only for what it was given for. PDPL is the default, and a DIFC or ADGM entity is scoped to its own regime instead.
No borrowed credibility in the creative
The DFSA publishes the technique itself: a DIFC landmark in the creative of a firm it does not regulate, to imply that it does. It appears in nothing we make.
Signed before it runs, and re-checked whenever it changes.
Before the first call
Send what you want to promote and who authorises you. We come back with who has to approve it, and what it must carry.
No obligation. A strategist replies within 2 business hours.
Find out who has to **sign your marketing**
Questions from regulated firms
Each answer below names the instrument it comes from, so a compliance officer can check it rather than take it on trust.
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Before the next campaign
Tell us who authorises you and what you want to promote. We will come back with who has to sign it and what the creative must carry.
Tell us what you need.