Anti Money Laundering

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The Central Bank of the UAE has issued new guidelines to financial institutions on Anti-Money laundering practices the latest of a number of measures launched by the Gulf state to combat illicit financial flows.

The CBUAE established a dedicated department in August 2020 to handle all Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism matters (AML/CFT), which the Banking Supervision Department handled previously.

The Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism Supervision Department (AMLD) serves three key objectives:

  • examining Licensed Financial Institutions (LFIs);
  • ensuring adherence to the UAE’s AML/CFT legal and regulatory framework, and
  • identifying threats, vulnerabilities and emerging risks to the UAE’s financial sector.

UAE Financial Intelligence Unit

The UAE Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), an independent body under UAE law, analyses suspicious transactions and activities that may involve money laundering, terrorism financing and related criminal activities (ML/TF), on the basis of data and reports from financial institutions and designated non-financial business and professions who collaborate and share knowledge to detect and act against such activities.

If a Licensed Financial Institution suspects that a transaction, attempted transaction, activity, or funds, constitute, in whole or in part, regardless of the amount, the proceeds of a Crime, are related to a Crime, or are intended to be used in a Crime, it must report without any delay a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR), a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) or other report types to the FIU.

A reporting entity in the UAE should be connected to the goAML platform to submit a STR, SAR and other report types to the FIU.

For any technical query related to the GoAML portal (including errors or troubleshooting), please contact the FIU via goAML@UAEFIU.gov.ae

For correspondence regarding a STR/SAR or any other filed report, please use the GoAML Message Board

For filing/business related report queries, please contact the FIU via FIUSTR@UAEFIU.gov.ae

For any query related to the IEMS system, please contact the FIU via FIUDC@UAEFIU.gov.ae

For any other query, the FIU can be contacted via UAEFIU@UAEFIU.gov.ae

The CBUAE, jointly with the FIU, conducts outreach and awareness-raising efforts on the importance of reporting suspicious transactions in supervised sectors.

Al Maqtari Auditing is compliant with all AML regulations and registered in accordance with the regulations of UAE for AML Compliance.

USEFUL LINKS: https://www.centralbank.ae/en/cbuae-amlcft

https://www.uaefiu.gov.ae/en/