Gain Capital, the operator of Forex.com and City Index, has joined a series of other contracts-for-difference (CFD) brokers in securing a Category 5 licence from Dubai’s Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), FinanceMagnates.com understands.
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Another Broker with a Dubai Licence
According to the regulatory page, the licence allows the brokerage operator to offer financial consultations and to introduce and promote financial services.
Under this licence, Gain Capital can operate as a regulated introducing broker (IB) in Dubai. Although it can promote CFDs and direct clients to its non-UAE entities, the licence does not allow the firm to hold client money or to execute trades locally.
However, whether Gain will promote Forex.com to traders in Dubai or its City Index brand remains unclear.
FinanceMagnates.com contacted Gain Capital for details about its Dubai operations, but had not received a reply as of press time.
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StoneX owns Gain Capital, which it bought in 2020 for $236 million to enter the retail forex and CFD trading markets. The acquisition also saw a fair share of drama, as most Gain shareholders initially opposed the deal and insider-trading scandal later followed.
With the acquisition, StoneX more than doubled the number of active retail accounts on its platform globally to 295,000. The platform now has over 400,000 retail accounts worldwide.
Gain entered Dubai after the Forex.com brand launched services from its new Singapore base earlier this year.
Is Dubai the Next CFD Brokers’ Base?
Meanwhile, Dubai has become the most sought-after market for CFD brokers, most of which opt for the Category 5 licence. XM, Exinity, VT Markets, Eightcap, EC Markets and Taurex have all received the Category 5 licence from the SCA.
Related: CFD Brokers Can Now Get Dubai Licenses 33% Faster
However, a handful, such as Plus500, XTB, Deriv and RoboMarkets, have received the full Category 1 brokerage licence, which allows them to take client deposits and execute trades locally.
Although the exact size of the Dubai market is unknown, figures from some brokers reveal the country's attractiveness.
Capital.com revealed that 52 per cent of its H1 2025 trading volume was generated from traders in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Of that, traders in the UAE alone contributed almost 72 per cent. The broker had 35,000 MENA traders compared with 61,400 in Europe, whose share of the broker’s total trading volume was only about 15 per cent. This also shows how lucrative MENA-based traders are.
