The UAE Central Bank Revokes Dirham Exchange’s Licence for AML Misconduct

Richard M. August 10, 2023 4 minute read

Dirham Exchange, an exchange house based in the UAE, has had its licence revoked by The UAE Central Bank, alongside being removed as a registered company. This took place due to financial authorities taking greater initiatives to combat Anti-Money Laundering (AML) misconduct.

The administration not only revoked the licence of the money exchange agency, but also of the Hawala provider RMB commercial brokers. The administrative sanctions were preceded by an appeals procedure associated with money laundering regulations, combating terrorism financing and involvement in illegal activities.

These sanctions are only led against the two companies after the examinations, the Central Bank found “serious regulatory misconduct, including anti-money laundering misconduct and collusion in evading the central bank’s instructions to the exchange house not to engage in remittance transactions with certain countries The findings showed that they had a weak compliance framework and failed to comply with their regulatory obligations and to report regulatory breaches to the CBUAE”

The UAE has made major progress in the regulation of combating money laundering and counter-terrorism financing. To enhance money laundering authorities, UAE announced last month the development of a new federal prosecution office which was particularly established to prevent money laundering and financial crimes. The news agencies of the UAE viewed this as a “first step towards investigating and cracking down on economic crimes and money laundering.”

The UAE is the second-biggest economy among the gulf countries, and they want to resolve the money laundering issue in the country and prevent the financial ecosystem from economic crimes. These federal authorities cover business crimes, bankruptcies, competition regulation, financial markets, intellectual property, and trademark offences. Since 2020, 899 criminals have been deported by UAE authorities, 43 of whom were engaged in money laundering. Ten of them either supported or were terrorists themselves. In its first fight against money laundering and terrorism financing, UAE has handed out fines totaling more than $31.3 million in the first quarter of this year.

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