The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market published its 2025 Annual Report on 13 July 2026. The headline: 94 Financial Services Permissions granted last year — a 22% jump on 2024 — alongside 120 In-Principle Approvals (+32%) and five new Memoranda of Understanding with international regulators.
Read together, the numbers point to a busier licensing pipeline and a more externally connected supervisor. They also line up with a report priorities list — RegTech, SupTech, sustainable growth, financial-crime prevention — that tells applicants what compliance conversations to expect.
The 2025 numbers
According to ADGM FSRA's 2025 Annual Report, the regulator granted 94 Financial Services Permissions, up 22% year-on-year. It also issued 120 In-Principle Approvals (IPAs), up 32%, and signed five new MoUs with international counterparts.
Two terms are worth defining, because they sit at very different points in an applicant's journey.
- Financial Services Permission (FSP) — the actual authorisation to carry on regulated financial activity in ADGM. It is granted after full due diligence: fit-and-proper checks on senior management, capital adequacy, business-plan review, systems and controls, AML/CFT and cyber posture. This is the licence.
- In-Principle Approval (IPA) — a preliminary confirmation that the regulator would authorise the applicant, subject to remaining conditions being met. It is typically issued before the applicant commits to full incorporation, hiring, capital deployment and office lease costs. IPAs are a leading indicator; FSPs are the settled figure.
The gap between the two — 120 IPAs versus 94 FSPs — suggests a thicker pipeline of licences still in flight at year-end.
What the CEO said
Emmanuel Givanakis, Chief Executive Officer of the FSRA at ADGM, framed the year around innovation, resilience and market confidence:
"In 2025, we continued to strengthen our regulatory and supervisory approach to support ADGM's growing and increasingly sophisticated financial services ecosystem. We remained focused on delivering effective and forward-looking regulation that supports innovation while safeguarding market integrity and confidence. The achievements outlined in this report reflect the dedication of our people and our continued commitment to a resilient, well-regulated and future-focused financial ecosystem."
Where FSRA put the emphasis in 2025
The report clusters the regulator's 2025 work around four themes. None of them are surprising — but each is worth reading as a signal of where supervisory attention will sit.
- RegTech and SupTech. Technology for regulated firms (RegTech) and for the supervisor itself (SupTech). Expect more data-driven, machine-readable reporting expectations — and less appetite for spreadsheets glued together at month-end.
- Sustainable growth. Sustainable-finance disclosure and ESG-aligned product structuring continue to matter for asset managers and issuers marketing into ADGM.
- International cooperation. The five new MoUs sit here. Cross-border information sharing shortens due-diligence timelines when a group already sits under a home regulator FSRA has a channel to.
- Financial crime prevention. AML, sanctions and counter-terrorist financing controls remain a first-order supervisory topic — consistent with UAE-wide FATF-aligned commitments.
The 2025 report also references continuing work on digital assets, sustainable finance, the cyber-risk framework and the funds framework — the four workstreams most often cited by applicants asking what has changed since their last review.
What this means for businesses considering ADGM
For founders, CFOs and asset managers weighing ADGM as a base, the 2025 report reads as an open-door signal with a tightened floor. Three practical takeaways stand out.
- The jurisdiction is actively taking new financial businesses. Asset management, fintech, digital asset service providers, family offices, funds and payment firms are all represented in the FSP mix. A 22% rise in FSPs is not marketing — it is throughput.
- Compliance packages need to be more mature at submission. A thicker IPA-to-FSP pipeline points to deeper diligence on the way through. Governance documentation, cyber controls, AML procedures and data-quality standards should be near-final at application, not works-in-progress.
- MoUs widen international recognition. Five new bilateral arrangements reduce friction where a group is already known to a home regulator. That can compress cross-border due-diligence and reference-checking timelines materially.
One timing note. Applicants planning entry in 2026 should factor RegTech and SupTech readiness — cyber posture, data governance, AML tooling — into the project plan, not treat it as a post-licence exercise. The report signals the same standards for a first-day firm as for an established one.
Sources
- ADGM FSRA — 2025 Annual Report announcement, 13 July 2026 (primary source): adgm.com/media/announcements
- Zawya (LSEG): ADGM's FSRA publishes its 2025 Annual Report
- Economy Middle East: ADGM FSRA strengthens financial ecosystem with 94 permissions, 120 approvals in 2025
- Abu Dhabi Blog: ADGM's FSRA publishes its 2025 Annual Report
