Every DIFC firm licensed to provide money services, sorted into its prudential category, with its products, customers and corridors. Then the gaps a new Dubai cross-border payments firm could fill, and what a 3D licence takes.
The register lists permissions but not categories. We applied PIB 1.3.5A: 3D means a payment account, payment instrument or payment execution permission, and nothing that puts the firm in a higher category. Issuing Stored Value moves a firm to 3C, crypto custody to 3B, dealing as principal to Cat 2, and money transmission on its own to Cat 4. That leaves 15 more firms holding 3D-type payment permissions under another category.
Category 3D firms (strict PIB 1.3.5A test). Two of them, PhotonPay and Sokin, confirm 3D themselves.
Active firms authorised to Provide Money Services (3D + 15 in 3C / 3B / 2 / 4)
3D firms licensed in 2025–26, so the field is young and still growing (7 in 2025, 7 so far in 2026)
US$200k base capital for 3D (PIB 3.6.2). In practice the expenditure- or volume-based requirement usually sets the figure.
Filter by category or offering, search, and sort any column. Click a row or card to see the firm's register details, products and sources. Ticks come from each firm's own website or press release, read this week. A missing tick means we found no evidence, not that the firm lacks the feature.
Share of the 36 active money-services firms offering each capability, then a firm-by-capability heatmap for the 21 Category 3D firms.
Active money-services firms (n=36), from public evidence
Gold = Category 3D · violet = other categories (active firms only)
These gaps come from the coverage data above. Each counts the 21 Category 3D firms unless it says otherwise.
Only Finmo, Verto and PhotonPay pair accounts with invoices or AR/AP. UAE SMEs still reconcile cross-border receivables by hand.
Only 3-Shepherd, on a restricted Innovation Testing Licence. Procure Hub hints at it for construction. Nobody serves B2B trade escrow with document checks for UAE traders.
Remitly, Jingle Pay, Aspora and Taptap serve consumer remittance. Only MultiPass lists PKR for businesses. No one targets UAE–Pakistan/India/Bangladesh trade and services SMEs first.
PhotonPay, Wind (Innovation Testing Licence) and Lorum (fiat rails for crypto platforms). DFSA recognises USDC, EURC and RLUSD, but few 3D firms use a stablecoin settlement leg.
Most firms sell UK/EU IBANs. Few show AE IBANs or AED clearing: 3S Money, VFX Financial, Lorum, Sokin (through Ruya Bank) and Breinrock (Aani rail).
Cards are offered by fewer than half. Under 3D a card has to be a payment instrument on a payment account; prepaid stored value would push the firm into 3C.
Illustrative arithmetic on the rules shown. Not a DFSA calculation.
Example: US$240m a year is US$20m a month. 4%×5m + 2.5%×5m + 1%×10m = US$425k, more than double the US$200k base.
Working name "[Your product]". A DIFC Category 3D payment-account and payment-instrument firm for UAE-based SMEs and trading houses that buy from or sell to Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, and for South Asian exporters with GCC clients. The product puts accounts, invoicing, conditional release and stablecoin-assisted settlement in one flow. The data above shows no 3D firm combining these.
Named or virtual accounts through a UAE partner bank, plus EU/UK details through partners. Stay a payment account (no stored value) so the firm remains in 3D.
Invoices and payment links, AR/AP status, Xero / QuickBooks / Zoho sync, and VAT-ready UAE statements.
Funds stay in the buyer's payment account and are released on shipping or inspection documents. The legal structure and safeguarding must be agreed with the DFSA before launch.
Same-day local payouts through licensed partners in each country (e.g. SBP-regulated banks or EMIs), with the documentation exporters need for proceeds.
USDC or RLUSD treasury and settlement through a DFSA-licensed crypto partner, or a later Crypto Token endorsement. Not offered at launch.
Virtual and physical cards drawing on the payment-account balance (a payment instrument, not prepaid), plus an API so platforms and marketplaces can embed payouts.
Pakistani- and Indian-owned general trading, textiles and IT-services firms in Dubai's free zones and the DIFC, and their suppliers back home.
Corporate service providers and free-zone setup agents, chartered accountants, business councils (e.g. Pakistan Business Council Dubai), DIFC Innovation Hub, trade associations.
Free account tier, a transparent FX margin, flat fees per payout, and a small percentage fee on milestone release. Lead with price on the PKR and INR corridors.
Licences on both ends of the corridor (DFSA plus partners in each country), document-driven trade workflows, and corridor liquidity.
Risks: partner-bank de-risking on South Asia corridors · FX liquidity in PKR · DFSA view on escrow-style release · onshore UAE retail perimeter (CBUAE) · well-funded entrants (Sokin, Verto, Ebury, PhotonPay, LianLian).
Register data comes from the DFSA public register (queried with the "Providing Money Services" filter, 44 records) and each firm's register page, read 31 Oct 2026 (PKT). Categories are our inference from PIB 1.3.5A and are not shown on the register. Product ticks come from firm websites and press releases. Every row in the table links its sources, and the full CSV is dfsa_3d_firms_full.csv.