Table of Contents
Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of business is licensed under activity 6619.00?
It covers firms that support financial services without acting as principal: investment and mortgage advisers, compliance consultants, transaction processors, fiduciaries and the full range of virtual asset service providers. The common thread is facilitating financial activity rather than taking positions in it.
Does activity 6619.00 need third-party approval?
The parent code does not, but many sub-activities do. Virtual asset codes need VARA approval, financial advisory needs Capital Market Authority approval, and transaction processing needs Central Bank approval. Confirm the requirement against your specific sub-code before applying.
Can I hold more than one sub-activity under this class?
Usually yes, but virtual assets are the exception. Proprietary trading and custody cannot be combined with any other activity. The other six virtual asset codes can be combined with each other, excluding those two. Non-virtual sub-codes are generally more flexible.
What is the difference between 6619.00 and the banking codes?
Banking codes cover monetary intermediation, meaning taking deposits and lending as principal, and they sit under Central Bank licensing. Activity 6619.00 covers firms that advise on or service that activity without holding the underlying risk on their own balance sheet.
Which sub-activities carry anti-money laundering obligations?
Trustee, fiduciary and custody services on a fee or contract basis is designated as a Designated Non-Financial Business or Profession within this class. Virtual asset sub-codes are not DNFBP designated but are fully subject to VARA's own anti-money laundering rulebooks and federal law.
Can a foreign firm license this activity in Meydan Free Zone?
Yes. Meydan Free Zone permits full foreign ownership without a local partner and completes setup digitally. Any third-party approval attached to your chosen sub-activity applies identically to foreign-owned and UAE-owned applicants.
How to Get a Virtual Assets License in Dubai with Meydan Free Zone
Some financial businesses hold money. Others move it, price it, advise on it or keep the records straight, without ever taking a position of their own. That second group is what activity 6619.00 covers.
It is the licensing home for firms that make financial markets work from the outside: investment advisers, mortgage brokers, compliance consultants, transaction processors, fiduciaries, and the whole virtual assets service sector.
Dubai has spent a decade building the market these firms serve. The Dubai Financial Market general index rose 14.7 percent in 2025 to its highest level since 2008, with total market capitalisation passing AED 1 trillion[1].
Alongside conventional finance, the emirate's regulated virtual asset market recorded almost AED 2.5 trillion in transaction volumes in 2025[2], and the sector now contributes around 0.5 percent of Dubai's GDP, a share the Higher Committee for the Development of the Economic and Financial Sector has targeted to reach 3 percent[1].
What makes 6619.00 unusual is its breadth. A mortgage consultancy and a virtual assets custodian sit under the same parent class, and yet the regulatory distance between them is enormous.
Some sub-activities need no third-party approval at all. Others cannot be licensed without prior clearance from VARA, the Capital Market Authority or the Central Bank. Choosing correctly at the start is the whole exercise.
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A Financial Sector Past a Trillion Dirhams and a Virtual Asset Market Scaling Fast
An auxiliary financial services business in Dubai operates in a market where total capitalisation of the Dubai Financial Market passed AED 1 trillion after a 14.7 percent index rise in 2025, where regulated virtual asset transactions reached almost AED 2.5 trillion in the same year, and where virtual assets are targeted to grow from 0.5 percent of the emirate's GDP to 3 percent.
Sources: Higher Committee for the Development of the Economic and Financial Sector (2025), Dubai Government Media Office, Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, Emirates News Agency (WAM)
Who Is This Activity For?
6619.00 - Other Activities Auxiliary To Financial Service Activities
Activity 6619.00 is the parent class for activities auxiliary to financial services that are not classified anywhere else. The defining test is support rather than principal risk. Firms in this class advise, process, broker, administer or facilitate. They are not the bank, the insurer or the fund.
Underneath it sits a wide set of Meydan Free Zone sub-activities. The advisory group includes investment advisory, investments consultancy, financial consultancy, economic advisory, mortgage consultancy and compliance consultancy. The infrastructure group includes financial transaction processing and settlement, trustee and fiduciary services, collateral management and credit review. The virtual assets group runs from 6619.81 through to 6619.88 and covers proprietary trading, advisory, broker-dealer, custody, exchange, lending and borrowing, management and investment, and transfer and settlement.
Beyond this activity, Meydan Free Zone also supports related licences such as Virtual Assets Advisory Services, Virtual Assets Custody Services, and Virtual Assets Exchange Services.
The sub-activities licensed under this parent class include:
- Investment advisory services and investments consultancy
- Mortgage advisers, mortgage brokers and mortgage consultancy
- Financial advisory, financial analysis and economic advisory
- Compliance consultancy and credit review services
- Financial transaction processing and settlement, including card transactions
- Trustee, fiduciary and custody services on a fee or contract basis
- Collateral management and loan rescheduling services
- The eight virtual asset service activities, codes 6619.81 to 6619.88
Service Scope
Advisory and Consultancy
Firms whose product is a recommendation. Investment advisory, investments consultancy, economic advisory, mortgage consultancy and compliance consultancy all sit here. Several of these carry no third-party approval requirement at all, which makes them among the faster routes to an operating license in the class. Others, such as financial advisory and financial analysis, require Capital Market Authority clearance first.
Processing, Settlement and Fiduciary Services
The infrastructure layer. Transaction processing and settlement, trustee and fiduciary work, collateral management and credit review. These are business-to-business activities with institutional clients and long contracts. Note that financial transaction processing and settlement requires Central Bank initial approval, and trustee, fiduciary and custody services on a fee or contract basis is one of the few sub-codes in this class flagged as a Designated Non-Financial Business or Profession.
Virtual Asset Services
The eight codes from 6619.81 to 6619.88. Every one requires VARA approval before Meydan Free Zone can issue the license, and each carries its own combination rules. Two of them, proprietary trading and custody, cannot be combined with any other activity at all. The remaining six can be held together in various configurations, subject to those two exclusions.
WHAT THIS ACTIVITY EXCLUDES
It is important to note what activity 6619.00 does not cover. Actual monetary intermediation, meaning deposit-taking and lending as a principal, sits under the 6410 and 6419 banking codes and requires Central Bank approval. Insurance underwriting and reinsurance fall under 6510 to 6520, and insurance broking and claims work fall under the 6620 group rather than here. Operating a securities or commodities exchange is 6611, and securities and commodity brokerage on behalf of others is 6612, both under Capital Market Authority oversight. Fund management sits separately again. Own-account investment activity by venture capital firms and investment clubs belongs under 6499. Accounting, audit and tax consultancy sit under 6920 and carry their own Ministry of Economy requirements.
In short: if you advise on, process or administer someone else's financial activity, you are in. If you take the deposit, underwrite the risk, run the exchange or manage the fund, you are not.
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Licensing & Compliance
Third-Party Approval:
This business activity does not require third-party approval before your business license is issued. Approval depends on the sub-activity chosen: codes 6619.81 to 6619.88 require VARA approval, financial advisory requires Capital Market Authority approval, and transaction processing and e-banking require Central Bank approval.
Anti-Money Laundering Compliance:
This business activity is exempt from AML compliance requirement. One sub-activity is not: trustee, fiduciary and custody services on a fee or contract basis (6619.04) is DNFBP designated and carries AML obligations.
References
[1] GCC Business Watch, reporting the Higher Committee for the Development of the Economic and Financial Sector on Dubai Financial Market performance and virtual asset GDP contribution. gccbusinesswatch.com
[2] AGBI, Tokenisation fuels Dubai's virtual asset growth, says regulator, citing Dubai Government Media Office, July 2026. agbi.com
[3] Arabian Business, Dubai VARA reports $681bn in virtual asset volumes, reporting VARA figures for 2025, November 2025. arabianbusiness.com
[4] Emirates News Agency (WAM), VARA issues 50th VASP licence as Dubai's regulated virtual assets market continues to grow, 2 July 2026. bignewsnetwork.com
[5] The Official Portal of the UAE Government, Regulation of digital properties, on Dubai Law No. 4 of 2022 and the establishment of VARA. u.ae
[6] Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, Licence Applications, on the two-stage licensing process and submission through a Dubai free zone authority. vara.ae
