UAE Approves Anti-Money Laundering Bill

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus

11 October 2001

On Monday, the Council of Ministers of the United Arab Emirates, which includes such offshore financial centres as Dubai, announced that they had finally approved a long-awaited anti-money laundering bill, which will come into effect as soon as President Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan has signed it into law..

The new legislation, which gives the UAE Central Bank considerable new powers to monitor banks and other financial institutions and freeze suspicious bank accounts, and provides for both custodial and financial penalties in cases of proven wrongdoing, had been in the pipeline for some time, but its progress was accelerated by the September 11th attacks and resultant crackdown on terrorist assets. The snappily-named 'Law Regarding the Criminalisation of Laundering of Property Derived from Unlawful Activity' also provides for the creation of a National Anti Money-Laundering Committee under the Chairmanship of the Governor of the UAE Central Bank.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that Saudi Arabia, home to Osama bin Laden until 1994, when he was stripped of his citizenship, has also significantly stepped up its anti-money laundering activities in the wake of the terrorist attacks, warning financial institutions to watch transactions closely, and report those involving large sums of money or unusual transfers to the authorities. The Saudi Ministry of Commerce also ordered institutions to keep business and financial transaction records for a 10 year period, and to check identity documents for every person or entity involved in the transaction.

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