UAE Central Bank fines 11 banks for compliance failure

The United Arab Emirates’ central bank imposed financial sanctions on 11 banks operating in the country for their failure to reach appropriate levels of compliance on anti-money laundering and sanctions.

The sanctions imposed on January 24 amounted to a total of AED45.76 million ($12.5m), the regulator said in a statement.

The fines were imposed under Article 14 of the Federal Decree Law No. (20) of 2018 on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Financing of Illegal Organisation.

A statement from the central bank said: “The financial sanctions take into account the banks’ failures to achieve appropriate levels of compliance regarding their AML & Sanctions Compliance Frameworks as at the end of 2019.

All banks operating in the UAE have been allowed ample time by the CBUAE to remedy any shortcomings and were instructed in the middle of 2019 to ensure compliance by the end of that year, informing them that further shortcomings would result in penalties under the Federal Decree Law No. (20) of 2018 and its executive regulation.”

The statement added that non-compliance in future will result in further administrative and/or financial sanctions.