DFSA to cut licensing fees and other costs

Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) is currently drafting new rules that would substantially reduce licensing fees and other associated costs of fund managers.

The regulatory body is also in the process of launching exempt funds, a new category of fund that will be subject to lighter regulations, Emirates Business can reveal.

DFSA will put these changes in a public consultation paper by the end of March, with a plan to roll out the finalised version in the middle of this year. Ian Johnston, DFSA Deputy Chief Executive and Managing Director, said these changes were recommended by the market practitioner panel DFSA had appointed in July 2009 to review its fund regime.

"It will position us favourably with comparable jurisdictions," he told this newspaper.

"We can only affect DFSA funds but I think DIFC Authority is also proposing to make their regime more attractive from their point of view. One of the panel's observations was some of the costs need to be reduced in the DIFC as a whole."

The body is also drafting rules that would allow DIFC-based fund managers to establish funds in other reputable jurisdictions and allow fund managers established in reputable jurisdictions to establish funds in the DIFC.

 

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