The Central Bank of the UAE has imposed financial sanctions on six unnamed banks to enforce the OECD's multi-lateral agreement on common reporting standards to tackle tax evasion.
The region has seen a growing level of enforcement measures taken by the regulators in light of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in March this year placing the UAE on its so-called grey list for increased AML monitoring, and the industry's reaction which followed.
In a statement today (28 July), the regulator said the banks were fined under ‘Cabinet Resolution No. 9 of 2021", related to the enforcement of certain provisions of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Multilateral Administrative Agreement for Automatic Exchange of Information and Common Reporting Standard (CRS).
"The financial sanctions take into account the banks' failures to achieve appropriate levels of compliance regarding required due diligence and reporting procedures and standards.
"All banks operating in the UAE have been allowed ample time by the CBUAE to implement the CRS.
"The CBUAE is committed to comply with all regulations aimed at strengthening the nation's financial and banking system. This supports the UAE's commitment to global initiatives to enhance the integrity and transparency of tax systems and combat tax evasion", it said.
The central bank also said in a statement on 27 July that it had penalised an unnamed exchange house operating in the country for failing to achieve the appropriate levels of compliance with anti-money laundering regulations.
A fine of AED5.2m ($1.4m) was imposed against the exchange house in accordance with the law on anti-money laundering, combating the financing of terrorism and illegal organisations.
"The financial sanction comes as a result of the examination findings conducted by the CBUAE and revealed that the exchange house had a weak compliance framework regarding the required due diligence policies and procedures to prevent money laundering and financing of terrorism", it said.
