UAE Central Bank Fines Foreign Bank Branch AED 200 Million Over AML Failures
Regulator also penalised the branch's chief executive and head of compliance, ordered a remediation programme and a fresh fit and proper review.
The Central Bank of the UAE has fined the local branch of a foreign bank AED 200 million after inspections uncovered serious and repeated failures in its controls against money laundering and terrorist financing.
The regulator did not name the bank. It said the shortcomings reached beyond AML and counter-terrorism financing into governance, compliance and sanctions screening.
Two senior officers at the branch were penalised individually. The chief executive officer was fined AED 500,000 and the head of compliance AED 300,000. That officer also serves as the money laundering reporting officer. The central bank said both failed to carry out the duties attached to their positions.
Alongside the fines, the branch must work through a mandatory remediation programme, with an independent party checking the work. The CEO and the chief compliance officer will face a new fit and proper review.
The penalties were imposed under the federal law that governs the central bank and the institutions it supervises. The regulator said it works to ensure banks, their leaders and staff comply with UAE law and its rules, with the aim of protecting "the transparency and integrity" of the banking sector and the wider financial system.
The structure of the action is notable. A financial penalty against the branch is paired with personal penalties for two executives and a fresh fit and proper test for the same individuals. That links an institution's controls to the people responsible for running them, rather than treating the branch as an abstraction.
