VARA licensing in Dubai for VASPs and crypto businesses.
Best fit for exchanges, brokers, custody, advisory, issuance-related services, and institutional-facing crypto models targeting Dubai/UAE.
- Your exact activity class under VARA and what permissions you need.
- Where the company should sit (Dubai mainland vs free zones) and “substance” expectations.
- Client flows: custody, settlement, fiat rails, and third-party roles.
- Compliance baseline: AML/CTF, sanctions, governance, outsourcing, disclosures.
- Activity mapping to VARA permissions.
- Client segments and product boundaries.
- Marketing and cross-border positioning baseline.
- Mainland vs free zone considerations.
- Management, compliance, and oversight model.
- Outsourcing chain and vendor controls baseline.
- AML policy + procedures baseline.
- Sanctions screening and escalation.
- Conflicts, complaints, incident handling baseline.
- Licensing perimeter assessment and red flags.
- Structure, substance and outsourcing baseline.
- Application plan + document list + timeline.
- AML/CTF + onboarding/monitoring procedures.
- Sanctions policy + screening logic.
- Compliance manual, risk/BCP baseline, incident handling.
- Regulator comment handling and redrafting.
- Role packs and supporting statements.
- Vendor contracts + governance evidence alignment.
- Mainland / free zone setup strategy.
- Corporate documents and governance baseline.
- Key contracts alignment and clean structure.
- Policy updates as product evolves.
- Control testing baseline and remediation.
- Regulator Q&A, inspections and change management.
- Vendor DPAs and outsourcing contracts baseline.
- Platform terms, privacy and risk disclosures.
- IP chain and licensing clean-up.
Products, client segments, custody/settlement, fiat rails, vendors and compliance tooling.
Confirm license class, entity route, substance plan, and outsourcing model.
Policies, procedures, governance packs, vendor documentation, and operational narratives.
Handle regulator questions, revise documents, and align implementation actions with approvals.
- Short description of services and target client segments.
- Custody/settlement flow (who holds keys, who can move funds).
- Fiat rails and partners (banks/PSPs), geography of clients.
- Vendors: KYC/KYB, blockchain analytics, custody tech, trading tech.
If not fully defined, we map it together and create a regulator-ready baseline.
- VARA perimeter memo + structure/substance plan.
- Compliance documentation pack (AML/sanctions, governance, risk/BCP baseline).
- Vendor/outsourcing controls and core contracts baseline.
- Regulator Q&A support and revision rounds.
If you want a fixed-scope start, see Packages or request a tailored scope via Contact.
It depends on your activity, counterparties, and substance plan. We compare routes and pick the one that matches licensing expectations and operations.
Clarity of the operating model (who does what), custody/settlement flows, outsourcing chain, conflicts of interest, and AML controls that are actually implementable.
Outsourcing can be possible, but the oversight and accountability must sit with the licensed entity. We build the governance + vendor controls accordingly.
Yes. We align your Terms, risk disclosures, privacy/data layer and marketing claims with your product and compliance logic to avoid avoidable regulatory risk.
- Entity preferences (mainland/free zone) and where the team will sit.
- Asset flows: custody, settlement, fiat rails and key counterparties.
- Onboarding model (retail/institutional, KYB/KYC approach).
- Vendors and outsourcing (custody, KYC, blockchain analytics, tech).
Even 8–10 lines is enough to start.