1. Borrower: A UAE registered company (including sole proprietors) seeking a loan from one or more persons.
    
2. Central Bank: Shall mean the Central Bank of the UAE.
    
3. Client: Either a Borrower or a Lender on the Crowdfunding Platform (“CFP”).
    
4. Client money: Money belonging to either the Borrower or the Lender of a CFP that is controlled by the CFP relating to loan-based crowdfunding activity.
    
5. Pricing Platform: A type of Crowdfunding model whereby the platform is responsible for pricing borrower loans and administering the loans. The platform may not give any form of advice or place Lenders funds at its own discretion.
    
6. Commitment period: the period specified by the CFP during which Lenders may commit to lending money to a particular Borrower.
    
7. Controlling interest: The holding, directly or indirectly, of voting rights in another entity, or of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management of another entity.
    
8. “Cooling-off” period: The period of at least two full business days starting at the end of the commitment period¹
    
9. Crowdfunding platform (‘CFP’): A web-based platform, social networking site or similar means used for the purpose of Crowdfunding activities.
    
10. Crowdfunding: Crowdfunding is solicitation of funds from persons through a platform for a specific purpose.
     
11. Funding goal: The amount that a borrower aims to raise on the CFP within a set time limit.
     
12. Lender: A person for whom a CFP conducts / provides or intends to conduct / provide Regulated Activities under this Regulation. There are two types of clients who may participate in a CFP:
     
    1. Retail Lender: a Client that is not a Market Counterparty; and
        
    2. Market Counterparty: a Client that can evidence net assets of over AED 2,000,000 outside of their primary residence and self-attests to being treated as a Market Counterparty. Such self-attestation appropriately reviewed and verified by the CFP.
        
13. Loan: any funds provided to borrowers under a loan-based crowdfunding agreement through a CFP.
     
14. Loan-based Crowdfunding Company: Whereby a company duly incorporated under the Federal Law No. 2 of 2015 Concerning Commercial Companies and its amendments (excluding Partnership and Limited Partnership companies), with the business objectives including E-Finance or similar activities, conducts its activity through a platform intermediating between lenders and borrowers engaging in loan-based crowdfunding activities which operates using only the pricing business model whereby lenders pick investment opportunities and the pricing of the loan is decided by the CFP.
     
15. On-Boarding: the process of evaluating new clients, ensuring understanding and agreement of legal terms and opening of a new account.
     
16. Person: natural or juridical person.
     
17. Personal loan: a loan that is given to individual borrowers, where repayments are made from a verifiable regular income from a well-defined source, as defined under the Central Bank Regulations No. (29/2011) – Regulations Regarding Bank Loans & Other Services Offered to Individual Customers (as amended), or subsequent regulations issued in this regard.
     
18. Regulated activities: Any activity that requires licensing by the Central Bank in order to be conducted legally in the UAE.

¹ The CFP may choose to provide a longer period