What is the UAE National Risk Assessment (NRA) for money laundering and terrorist financing?
The UAE National Risk Assessment is the country’s own assessment of the money laundering and terrorist financing risks it faces. The second NRA, published in 2024, was coordinated by the General Secretariat of the NAMLCFTC and rates national ML risk as medium-high and national TF risk as medium-high.
An NRA is not a regulation and it does not create obligations by itself. It is an evidence base. It sets out which predicate crimes generate the most illicit proceeds in the UAE, which sectors are most exposed, how effective the controls in those sectors are, and where the gaps sit. Supervisors then use those findings to set inspection priorities, and reporting entities are expected to reflect them in their own business risk assessments.
For a UAE licensed firm the practical value is comparative. If your enterprise-wide risk assessment rates your sector materially lower than the NRA does, you need a documented reason for the difference. Supervisors read the two side by side, and an unexplained gap is one of the easier findings for an inspector to write up.
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: the 2nd NRA covers ML and TF only. Proliferation financing is assessed separately in the UAE PF National Risk Assessment.
Further reading: How to build an enterprise-wide AML risk assessment
Related questions on amlfaqs.com:
· What is the overall national terrorist financing risk rating for the UAE?
· What is the overall national money laundering risk rating for the UAE?
· How should a UAE firm use the National Risk Assessment in its business risk assessment?