ABU DHABI: The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) has imposed a financial penalty of AED200 million on a branch of a foreign bank licensed in the UAE, pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Decree Law Regarding the Central Bank and Organisation of Financial Institutions and Activities.
The financial penalty follows findings from examinations conducted by the CBUAE, which revealed significant and repeated failures by the foreign bank branch in its anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism and illegal organisations framework, as well as its governance, compliance management and sanctions framework.
The CBUAE also imposed an individual penalty of AED500,000 on the Chief Executive Officer and AED300,000 on the Head of Compliance and Money Laundering Reporting Officer, pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Decree Law Regarding the Central Bank and Organisation of Financial Institutions and Activities and its amendments. The penalties were imposed due to their failure to fulfil their responsibilities and duties.
In addition, the CBUAE required the foreign bank to implement a mandatory remediation programme under independent validation and to undergo a fit-and-proper reassessment of the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Compliance Officer.
Through its supervisory and regulatory mandates, the CBUAE seeks to ensure that all banks, their authorised decision-makers and employees comply with UAE laws, as well as regulations and standards issued by the CBUAE, to safeguard the transparency and integrity of the banking sector and the UAE financial system.
