The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market (FSRA ADGM) released its Annual Report 2025 on 13 July 2026, recording 95 Financial Services Permissions issued during the year — a 22% jump year on year — alongside a sharper 32% rise in In-Principle Approvals.
What the FSRA ADGM 2025 numbers actually say
According to the ADGM press release, the FSRA issued 95 Financial Services Permissions (FSPs) in 2025 — up 22% on 2024. Alongside that, the regulator granted 120 In-Principle Approvals (IPAs), a 32% year-on-year gain, and signed 5 new Memorandums of Understanding with foreign regulators.
Some context helps here. An FSP is a permission to conduct a specific category of financial activity inside ADGM's jurisdiction — the list runs wide, from asset management and capital markets to banking, insurance intermediation and custody. An In-Principle Approval sits one step earlier: an applicant has cleared the regulator's initial quality gate on business model, governance and fit-and-proper tests, but still needs to raise capital, hire key people and stand up compliance infrastructure before the full licence is issued. That 32% IPA growth is a leading indicator: much of it converts into fresh FSPs in the next reporting cycle.
FSRA's 2025 priorities — read past the labels
The report lists a defined set of priorities: responsible innovation, market integrity, financial crime prevention, consumer protection, financial stability, deployment of RegTech and SupTech for data-driven supervision, and international regulatory cooperation. None of these are new to the regulatory lexicon, but each carries operational weight for firms already inside the perimeter and for anyone planning to enter it.
Responsible innovation signals that FSRA will keep the door open to new business models — payments, tokenisation, structured products, digital asset activity — provided customer risk stays inside acceptable bounds. Market integrity and financial crime prevention translate directly into tougher scrutiny of KYC, AML programmes, transaction monitoring and internal audit trails. RegTech and SupTech point somewhere less obvious: over time, more of the reporting burden shifts from PDF submissions to machine-readable data feeds. Firms whose compliance stack still lives in spreadsheets will feel that shift first.
The CEO's message: a maturing ecosystem
"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." — Emmanuel Givanakis, CEO of the FSRA at ADGM.
The wording "growing and increasingly sophisticated" is the tell. FSRA is not just booking more licences — it is watching the mix of licensees tilt toward larger, more institutional and more cross-border operations: structured finance, multi-jurisdiction funds, heavier custody flows. The compliance bar rises alongside the ecosystem, and that applies to newcomers and existing licensees in the same way.
What the growth means for applicants, licensees and investors
For new applicants, +22% on FSPs and +32% on IPAs read as a clear signal: the pipeline is moving and the regulator is not throttling issuance. A well-prepared submission — coherent business model, credible key people, workable regulatory business plan — has a live path through. For existing licensees, the priority list points to deeper supervision powered by data. Formal reporting cycles stay the same on paper, but the regulator will increasingly see operating metrics closer to real time.
For investors — VC funds, private equity, family offices — the five new MoUs matter more than they look. Each agreement narrows the friction of cross-border enforcement, information exchange and mutual recognition. That reduces the risk premium on ADGM-domiciled structures holding assets in other jurisdictions. If you are still weighing ADGM against other UAE options, it is worth reviewing a proper UAE free zones comparison: the regulatory perimeter and the permitted-activity map at ADGM differ materially from DMCC, IFZA or Meydan.
The broader UAE regulatory landscape is also moving faster than most operating teams factor in. Tax, AML/CFT, cross-border data — the rules keep tightening across the federation, not only inside individual free zones. Our overview of UAE business regulation in 2026 maps the current vectors and where they intersect with ADGM licensing.
What to do now — a short checklist
- Planning an ADGM application. Run a clean fit test of your business model against FSRA's permitted-activity list and draft your regulatory business plan before you submit for In-Principle Approval.
- Already licensed. Audit your compliance stack against the expected RegTech/SupTech push — anything still running on manual Excel workflows will draw the first supervisory question.
- AML/KYC and transaction monitoring. Reconfirm alignment with the current FSRA Rulebook; financial crime prevention stayed on the 2025 priority list for a reason.
- SPVs and holding structures. With the widened MoU network, some cross-border scenarios now book cleaner through ADGM — worth a fresh look at your ownership map.
- Budget for data-driven reporting. Upgrading reporting infrastructure for 2026 supervision is no longer optional; treat it as part of the operating cost of the licence.
- Watch FSRA publications through the year. The annual report sets the direction, but the operational detail arrives via consultation papers and notices — do not miss the comment windows that touch your activity.
