Opening access to Dubai’s stock market just lost another piece of friction.
EFG Hermes UAE said on September 24 that investors using its EFG Hermes ONE app can now obtain a Dubai Financial Market investor number, or NIN, and open a trading account digitally from a mobile phone. Dubai Financial Market and Dubai CSD executives also confirmed the launch.
DFM’s investor-access plumbing is becoming more digital at a time when 71.4% of its H1 2026 new investors were foreign nationals.
UAE capital-market participants, retail investors, brokers, fintech operators and firms tracking foreign participation in Dubai markets.
Faster remote access to DFM-listed securities for eligible investors and lower administrative friction for overseas participation.
Digital onboarding reduces process friction but does not remove suitability, compliance or investment risk, and adoption figures have not yet been disclosed.
Watch whether the new mobile onboarding route increases completed investor registrations and active trading accounts.
Investors can compare the new digital onboarding route with existing DFM access options and verify eligibility and fees before opening an account.
Eligible retail investors, especially overseas users seeking remote access to DFM, plus regulated brokers and the exchange ecosystem.
Eligible investors who meet EFG Hermes and DFM onboarding and regulatory requirements.
New investor numbers, foreign-investor share, completed EFG Hermes ONE onboardings and DFM trading participation.
What actually changed
The useful part is not another finance app feature. The investor-number step is part of the market-access plumbing. EFG Hermes says the new flow combines DFM onboarding and brokerage-account opening into an end-to-end digital process without paperwork or a branch visit.
That shortens the path between deciding to invest and being ready to trade DFM-listed securities. It does not change who is eligible to invest, the risks of investing, or the market’s regulatory requirements. It changes the onboarding route.
The foreign-investor number is the real context
DFM added 42,864 new investors in the first half of 2026, according to figures cited by EFG Hermes and Dubai CSD. Of those, 71.4% were foreign nationals. Total traded value reached AED 119.5 billion during the half, up 40.4% year on year, while foreign investors accounted for 51% of traded value.
Those figures explain why onboarding infrastructure matters. A market drawing most of its new registrations from outside the UAE has more to gain from removing physical and administrative steps than a market serving an overwhelmingly domestic investor base.
This is part of a wider digital-finance shift
The launch lands during a week in which the UAE payments and financial-technology sector has been unusually active. PhonePe received in-principle CBUAE approval for two payment-licence categories, while Seamless Fintech Middle East has brought banks, payment companies and fintech infrastructure providers into Dubai.
EFG Hermes is approaching the same digital-finance story from the capital-markets side: not creating a new exchange, but making access to an existing regulated market less dependent on manual onboarding.
What to watch
The next useful signal is adoption. A digital path can reduce friction, but the stronger test is whether it increases completed account openings, attracts more overseas participation and converts registrations into active investors. DFM’s next investor and trading statistics should make that easier to judge.
Sources
- EFG Holding — “EFG Hermes UAE LLC Launches fully Digital Onboarding for DFM Investors Through EFG Hermes ONE,” 24 September 2026.
- Emirates News Agency (WAM) — “EFG Hermes launches fully Digital Onboarding for DFM investors,” 24 September 2026.
Checked 24 September 2026. The onboarding capability and DFM market figures were cross-checked against EFG Holding’s announcement and WAM reporting carrying confirmation from Dubai CSD and EFG Hermes executives.
Robius.news — Dubai, UAE — 2026 | Built to be first. Built to be trusted.
