UAE: Major steps ahead to comply with AML-CFT requirements

by Dr Waleed Alhosani

Following the adoption of its Mutual Evaluation Report 2020 (MER 2020) ¹ by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary in February 2020, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has taken fundamental steps to address deficiencies identified in the report. This is simply due to the outcome of the MER 2020, which resulted in the country being granted a 16-month period to close all identified loopholes mainly related to the effectiveness of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) measures. Such a period is a so-called “observation period”. The country should report back to the FATF by submitting a Post Observation Period Report (POPR), showing that all recommended actions contained in the MER 2020 have been addressed and reached tangible progress.