Questions about the firm, release and onboarding

An escrow arrangement is one in which a regulated third party holds funds for a transaction and releases them on the mechanism the parties have documented, rather than on either party's say-so.

The 2007 Dubai escrow law addressed the developer accounts required for off-plan property. The application is wider. The same structure carries purchase consideration, holdbacks, earn-outs, completion adjustments, settlement sums and multi-party distributions.

Titanium holds those funds under a Financial Services Permission from the FSRA of ADGM for Providing Custody and Providing Money Services.

Send the structure, the parties and their jurisdictions, the number of payees, the timetable and the proposed release mechanics. Titanium confirms whether it can act.

The agreement is then settled with transaction counsel, each party who will send or receive money completes onboarding, and funds are received into the designated client account arrangement. An initial conversation does not need documents.

Titanium Escrow is the trading name of Titanium Financial Ltd, an Abu Dhabi firm that provides escrow, custody and paying agency services. It holds funds for transactions that need an independent party to hold them, and releases those funds on the mechanism the parties have documented.

Titanium Financial Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market for Providing Custody and Providing Money Services. The permission was granted on 26 November 2020.

The authorisation can be verified on the ADGM public register. Note that the FSRA grants a Financial Services Permission. There is no separate escrow permission in the regime, and authorisation is not endorsement.

Escrow, paying agency and custody. In practice that means holding transaction funds, administering payments to multiple recipients, and holding assets or proceeds under a custody arrangement, in each case on documented instructions.

M&A and corporate transactions, private capital structures, restructuring and settlement arrangements, and UAE real estate purchases including arranging manager's cheques for non-resident buyers. If a proposed mandate falls outside what Titanium can accept, we say so at the first conversation rather than at onboarding.

Escrow governs when money may leave the account. The agreement sets the trigger and Titanium acts on it.

Paying agency governs how it leaves. Each beneficiary is identified and onboarded, screened, and their account details validated before payment is executed. Most corporate mandates use both, and on a multiple recipient distribution it is the paying agency work that sets the timetable.

Client funds are held separately from Titanium's operating funds under the applicable client money arrangements. Emirates NBD is a banking partner for client accounts. The specific account arrangement is confirmed during onboarding.

Customer due diligence, beneficial ownership identification, sanctions and adverse media screening, and source-of-funds verification appropriate to the party and the mandate. Enhanced due diligence is applied on a risk-assessed basis. Onboarding applies to every party who will receive money, not only to the party sending it.

Timing depends on the parties, jurisdictions, ownership structures, source of funds and the completeness of what is submitted. Titanium confirms an indicative timetable after its initial review. On multi-payee transactions, onboarding for each payee usually takes the longest.

Major currencies including AED, USD, GBP, EUR and SAR. Cash and cryptocurrency are not accepted. Parties and assets are frequently outside the UAE, and onboarding requirements vary accordingly. Whether a particular jurisdiction can be supported is confirmed at the initial review rather than assumed.

Fees are quoted for the specific mandate after initial review, and are recorded in the agreement. Titanium does not publish a fee schedule. Fees are quoted for the specific mandate after initial review, all inclusive and capped for the mandate.