DFSA Releases Findings of Corporate Governance Review in DIFC

The DFSA's landmark full-scale corporate governance review of DIFC-regulated institutions found that firms frequently did not carry out structured, periodic reviews of their governing bodies or their committees' effectiveness, and that governance arrangements often did not align to business plans and strategies. The regulator highlighted a significant gap between stated governance policies and actual practice. For SEA mid-market boards operating in or targeting international financial centres, this finding reinforces that governance alignment between board structure, strategy, and documented policy is increasingly a regulatory expectation, not a best-practice aspiration.