The Dubai Financial Services Authority issues the ninth edition of the audit oversight report
DUBAI, 9 JULY / WAM / The Dubai Financial Services Authority, the independent body regulating banking activities, financial services and markets in the Dubai International Financial Centre, issued its ninth report on audit oversight, entitled “Establishing audit quality standards in the Dubai International Financial Centre”.
According to a press release issued today, the report reviews the most prominent results and insights derived from the monitoring visits conducted by the Authority to auditors registered at the Center during the period extending from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2025.
The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the results of audit operations, identifies areas of leading practices, and emphasizes the importance of adopting strict audit methodologies, exercising the principle of professional skepticism, and applying effective quality management systems. The report also represents a standard reference for audit firms operating in the Dubai International Financial Center, and reflects the center’s ongoing commitment to maintaining the highest levels of governance and financial reporting standards.
Mark Steward, CEO of the Dubai Financial Services Authority, said that high-quality audits are an essential foundation for ensuring the flexibility of financial markets, and the authority’s ninth report on oversight of audit work confirms the commitment to raising the level of standards, continuous development, and establishing confidence in the center’s financial system.
He added that the Dubai Financial Services Authority continues to adopt a regulatory approach characterized by firmness and fairness, and is based on cooperation without compromising on high quality standards, and as the Dubai International Financial Center continues to expand the scope of its operations and activities, we will continue to work side by side with the audit sector to ensure the application of the best standards.
The inspection operations cycle included 26 inspections spanning 93 audit task files. The results showed an increase in the percentage of tasks that received a satisfactory rating, and a decrease in tasks that were rated unsatisfactory compared to previous cycles. The course also highlighted the continued investment in technical competencies, as registered auditors recorded 10,802 hours of continuous professional development during this period.
The 2024-2025 cycle also witnessed several unprecedented achievements. The auditors of public listed companies published the first transparency reports in accordance with the requirements of the Dubai Financial Services Authority rule book, including disclosure of governance, quality management systems and internal institutional culture, which represents a qualitative shift in regional oversight and sets a new standard for disclosure.
The Authority also published its first substantive review on archiving and preserving audit work papers, and signed memorandums of understanding with the Ministry of Economy and Tourism and the Capital Market Authority in the UAE to enhance national regulatory coordination.
The total audit fees charged by registered auditors amounted to $33.5 million during the reporting period, an increase of 74% compared to the previous cycle, reflecting the continued growth and increasing complexity of the audit market in the DIFC.
To ensure the continuation of this progress, the Dubai Financial Services Authority is closely following a shift in the mechanism for distributing tasks to human cadres, as a decrease was observed in the participation of audit officials in the actual working hours of tasks, in exchange for an increasing reliance on audit managers. The Authority highlighted this issue as a priority to maintain the senior management approach and the quality of supervision of audit tasks in light of the continued growth of the market.
The report identified five priority thematic axes that require continuous focus across the audit sector, which included supporting the audit opinion, as the rationale for the main provisions related to the audit must be clarified, and the identified challenges must be linked to the final audit opinion, and the evaluation of investments, where the experts’ assumptions must be subjected to rigorous scrutiny and independent verification of the basic data, instead of being satisfied with a passive control method, as it included related parties, as transactions with related parties must be evaluated to ensure their consistency with the business model of the company subject to audit and its internal control systems, and not suffice. By verifying accounting accuracy only, the topics also included the revenue recognition policy, and understanding the environment of the entity subject to audit, as audit procedures must be constantly updated to keep pace with new risks that may appear during the planning stage, and one should not be satisfied with adding an attention-grabbing paragraph in the report as an alternative to implementing objective tests.
The report confirms that improving the quality of auditing is achieved through cooperation, exchange of experiences, coordinated supervision, and consistency with global best practices, through partnership with UAE regulatory authorities, interaction with international authorities concerned with setting standards, and participation in global regulatory forums.
The DFSA’s inspection priorities for 2026 will focus on quality management systems, the use of artificial intelligence in audit work, and revenue recognition policy, in addition to planning to conduct a comprehensive thematic review on corporate governance and culture during the period 2026-2027.
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