The Financial Intelligence Unit is an independent unit established within the Central Bank of the UAE. It is the single national body to which all suspicious transaction reports and related information must be submitted by financial institutions, DNFBPs and virtual asset service providers. The Unit studies and analyses these reports and refers them to the relevant authorities, either automatically or on request.
The law gives the Unit wide powers. It can request additional information or documents from reporting entities and concerned authorities, exchange information with counterpart units abroad and domestically, conclude memoranda of understanding, and maintain a secure database protected by strict confidentiality and cybersecurity controls. In practice, reporting entities interact with the Unit through the goAML platform, which is the designated electronic channel for filing STRs and responding to requests. Registration on goAML is therefore a baseline obligation for every regulated business.
Legal Reference (UAE):
Federal Decree-Law No. 10 of 2025, Article 11 — establishes the Financial Intelligence Unit within the Central Bank and sets out its competences.
The Financial Intelligence Unit is an independent body established within the Central Bank. All suspicious transaction reports and the information related to them are submitted to it exclusively, by financial institutions, designated non-financial businesses and professions, and virtual asset service providers. It studies and analyses what it receives and refers matters on to the concerned authorities, either automatically or on request.
Its powers extend beyond receiving reports. It may require additional information from reporting entities, and its Chief may order a transaction suspended for up to ten working days or funds frozen for up to thirty days on the strength of the Unit’s own analysis. For a regulated business the practical consequence is that the Unit is both the destination for its reports and a source of binding instructions, so responsiveness to a request from the Unit is a compliance obligation in its own right rather than a courtesy.
Legal Reference (UAE):
· Federal Decree-Law No. 10 of 2025, Article 11, which establishes the independent Financial Intelligence Unit within the Central Bank and provides that all suspicious transaction reports be submitted to it exclusively.