UAE - Mubasher: The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) has issued new guidance on anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism for its licensed financial institutions (LFIs) offering services to cash-intensive businesses (CIBs).
The guidance came into effect on 28 September 2021 for CIBs, which see a high volume of cash flows across various industry sectors including retail, wholesale and trading, travel, and transport, according to a press release on Sunday.
Under the new guidance, LFIs providing services to CIBs should take a risk-based approach in their AML programmes by evaluating CIB customers, in addition to obtaining information about the source of cash deposited in a customer’s account.
The Governor of the CBUAE, Khaled Mohamed Balama, said: "The new guidance affirms our commitment to implement high regulatory control over LFIs and their transactions with cash-intensive business activities, and to complement with the UAE’s path to actively participate in international efforts to AML/CFT."
Meanwhile, Balama added: "We will continue our efforts to issue similar regulatory guidelines, to ensure enhancing the efficiency and robustness of our banking and financial system, in line with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards."
