The Central Bank issues new guidelines on countering money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism
The Central Bank of the UAE has issued two new guidelines on countering money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism for licensed financial institutions, focusing on reporting suspicious transactions, legal persons and legal entities.
The new guidelines contribute to forming an overview of risks and ways to reduce them, in addition to the effective performance by authorized financial institutions of their legal obligations related to combating money laundering and combating terrorist financing. The guidelines were also developed based on Federal Decree-Law No. 20 of 2018 regarding countering money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism and the financing of illegal organizations, and Cabinet Resolution No. 10 of 2019, and take into account the standards and directives issued by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
In addition, authorized financial institutions are required to report any behavior that may be suspected to some extent related to money laundering, terrorist financing or criminal offences, by submitting reports on suspicious activities directly to the UAE Financial Information Unit within 35 days of their discovery using the goAML platform. Also, licensed financial institutions that provide services to legal persons and legal entities must assess the risks related to money laundering and terrorist financing, and develop an effective program to combat money laundering and combat the financing of terrorism, and it may include companies, institutions, associations, trust funds, or other similar entities.
The Governor of the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, Khaled Muhammad Balama, said that the United Arab Emirates continues its path in confronting money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism and illegal organizations.
In line with the Central Bank’s duties in the field of oversight and supervision in order to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Law in the UAE, the issuance of these guidelines comes to enhance our efforts in providing licensed financial institutions with the necessary instructions that will implement anti-crime measures with high efficiency.
The Central Bank, in cooperation with the Financial Information Unit, is making unremitting efforts to enhance awareness among the sectors subject to supervision of the importance of reporting suspicious transactions.
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