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Dubai Financial Services Authority
The Dubai Financial Services Authority has confirmed that the UAE Ministry of Finance’s inaugural sovereign retail treasury sukuk, an Islamic financial certificate similar in some ways to a bond, has been admitted to trading on Nasdaq Dubai. 

The is the UAE’s first sovereign sukuk targeted at retail investors, which will be admitted to trading on a regulated exchange within DIFC (main building in picture), the DFSA said in a statement yesterday. 

Sukuk listed on Nasdaq Dubai have historically been held by institutional investors; this listing extends access to the retail investors within DIFC’s market infrastructure. 

Sukuk are Islamic financial certificates that mirror bonds in Western finance but adhere to Sharia principles, including a bar on charging interest on loans. Unlike traditional interest-bearing bonds, sukuk involve selling certificates to investors, who then gain partial ownership in an asset purchased with those funds. The issuer promises to repurchase these certificates at a predetermined future date and at face value. 

S&P Global projects that global sukuk issuance will hover between $270 billion and $280 billion in 2026, up from $264.8 billion in 2025 and $234.9 billion in 2024. This includes foreign currency issuance of $100 billion to $110 billion. Issuance rose 12.7 per cent year-on-year in 2025, driven by participation from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, the UAE and Bahrain. (Source: Arab News, 13 January 2026.)

“The listing of the first sovereign retail sukuk in the UAE on Nasdaq Dubai is a signal moment for Dubai’s capital markets and reflects the continued evolution of Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) toward greater and wider investor participation,” Mark Steward, CEO of the DFSA, said. 

More than $ 98.6 billion in outstanding sukuk are listed on Nasdaq Dubai.