AML & KYC
Our briefings on AML & KYC in the UAE — practical, current guidance from the FW Global team.
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The AML compliance officer, and why authority matters.
Every in-scope business needs a person who owns compliance, and it is not a nominal title. The choice of who fills it, and how they are empowered, determines whether the programme works or merely exists. Here is what the role demands.
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Designated businesses: are you in the AML net?
Certain non-financial businesses are treated, for AML, much like banks. If yours is one, you carry obligations whether or not you think of yourself as a compliance operation. Many in scope do not realise it, which is exactly the problem. Here is who is caught.
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AML penalties: why enforcement is now real.
Some businesses still treat AML as unenforced. That is no longer safe. Supervisors are active, fines are substantial, and enforcement is public. The failures penalised first, not registering, no programme at all, are the cheapest ones to have fixed. Here is what is at stake.
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AML record-keeping: proving you did the work.
AML compliance is not only about doing the right checks; it is about being able to prove you did them. Good work with no records is, to a supervisor, much like no compliance at all. Here is what to keep, how long, and why the reasoning matters as much as the documents.
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The AML business risk assessment.
The framework asks businesses to be risk-based, and the document that makes that possible is the business risk assessment. Without knowing where your risk lies, you cannot decide what to check or monitor. Here is what it is and how to approach it.
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Suspicious transaction reporting and goAML.
The point of an AML programme is to reach a moment of action: recognising something suspicious and reporting it, through goAML, to the FIU. The standard is suspicion, not proof. Here is how reporting works, what triggers it, and the tipping-off rule.
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AML in the UAE: who it applies to, and why it is not just for banks.
AML rules are often assumed to be a bank problem. In the UAE that assumption is wrong and increasingly costly. A wide range of ordinary businesses now sit inside the framework, with real obligations and real penalties. Here is who is caught and why it matters.
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KYC explained: knowing your customer, properly.
Know your customer is the foundation the whole AML framework rests on, and it is not a passport on file. Done properly it is a genuine risk process. Here is what KYC actually requires and where businesses fall short, especially on ongoing monitoring.