According to the Central Bank, financial institutions are responsible for conducting due diligence on customers, monitoring all transactions processed or conducted through the licensed financial institutions (LFIs) and reporting suspicious transactions to the UAE’s Financial Intelligence Unit to mitigate and manage money laundering and the financing of terrorism risks.
The new guidelines issued by the Central Bank of the UAE will require LFIs to conduct a regular risk assessment to cover all the payment products, services, relationships and exposure to domestic and foreign payment sector participants.
LFIs who fail to achieve appropriate levels of compliance with AML/CFT will be penalised up to AED 5.2 million ($1.4m) in accordance with the law on AML/CFT and the financing of illegal organizations.
This new set of guidelines will spur on identifying relevant threats, vulnerabilities and emerging risks concerning the UAE’s financial sector which is one of the key objectives of AMLD.
