What did the UAE NRA find about the abuse of bank accounts for money laundering?
Bank accounts feature in a significant portion of UAE money laundering cases. The second NRA identifies fraud, electronic fraud and drug trafficking as the key threats behind that abuse, and records that international transfers are the most common method used to move the funds.
From 2019 to 2023 the vast majority of all suspicious reports from regulated financial institutions came from the banking sector. That is partly a function of sector size and control maturity, but the NRA reads it as continued need for vigilance rather than as reassurance.
The banking sector is described as exposed to money transport and cash controller networks, proxy networks, money mule networks, and digital money and virtual currency networks. More recently it has been exposed to fraud typologies including impersonation fraud, business email compromise and pig butchering scams.
Legal Reference (source document):
· UAE Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing National Risk Assessment, 2nd NRA (2024)
· National Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting Financing of Terrorism and Financing of Illegal Organizations Committee
Scope note: reporting volume by sector reflects both risk and reporting maturity. High volume is not itself a risk indicator.
Further reading: Filing a suspicious activity report in the UAE
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