An investigation by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) found that between November 2017 and January 2019, Enness DIFC arranged mortgages and provided mortgage advice for clients, which it was not authorised to do therefore breaching DFSA’s laws.
Enness DIFC is the representative office of the firm and is only allowed to carry out a narrow scope of activities related to the mortgage services offered by its head office in the UK.
The firm cooperated with the investigation and is now attempting to obtain the correct DFSA license which would authorise it to carry on arranging and advising on credit.
As the firm agreed to settle at an early stage of the investigation, it qualified for a 30 per cent discount of the original $150,000 (£116,115) fine.
Enness refused to make a comment when contacted by Mortgage Solutions.
The broker, which serves high net worth individuals and has offices in Mayfair, West Hampstead and Monaco, opened its Dubai office in 2017 following an increase in enquiries from clients in the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC).
Bryan Stirewalt, chief executive of the DFSA, said: “This action demonstrates that the DFSA takes the failure by representative offices to act within the scope of their licences seriously.
“We expect that all representative offices in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) understand what they are authorised to do and have controls in place that ensure they only engage in authorised activities.”
