The Central Bank of the UAE has imposed a financial penalty of AED 20 million, equivalent to approximately USD 5.45 million, against the UAE branch of a foreign bank.
The penalty follows an investigation that uncovered significant and repeated failures in the branch’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism compliance programs.
The regulator also cited serious deficiencies in the branch’s sanctions compliance operations, compounding the severity of the enforcement action.
In a notable step, the Central Bank of the UAE went beyond penalising the institution itself, targeting a senior individual directly responsible for compliance oversight.
The Head of Compliance and Money Laundering Reporting Officer was personally fined AED 300,000, approximately USD 82,000, for failure to fulfil the responsibilities of his position.
The decision to hold the individual accountable signals a clear shift toward personal liability as a key deterrent tool in the UAE’s broader financial crime enforcement strategy.
The CBUAE issued over AED 370 million, approximately USD 101 million, worth of fines for AML/CFT failures in 2025 alone, demonstrating the scale of its enforcement activity.
The UAE was removed from the FATF grey list in February 2024, and robust enforcement remains central to maintaining that status as the FATF Fifth Round Mutual Evaluation takes place this month.
Foreign bank branches operating in the UAE face particular risk, as home country compliance programs may not meet the full extent of the UAE’s own AML/CFT expectations.
Financial institutions and senior individuals risk very material institutional and personal consequences by not immediately identifying and remediating deficiencies in their compliance frameworks.
The enforcement action reinforces that the UAE remains firmly committed to upholding the highest international standards in the fight against money laundering, terrorist financing, and sanctions evasion.
Regulators have made clear that governance, risk management, and compliance failures across the financial sector will continue to attract significant supervisory and enforcement responses.