CBUAE progresses in compliance function and risk management

The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) conducted the first Compliance Officers Forum to discuss the expectations from compliance function and banks’ risk management activities more generally.

The forum aimed to support the UAE’s vision to leverage the efforts on anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism was chaired by Abdulhamid M. Saeed Alahmadi, Governor of the UAE Central Bank and was attended by more than 100 Chief Compliance Officers and other senior compliance professionals from the banking sector in the presence of Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, Chairman of UAE Banks Federation (UBF).

The forum emphasized the significance of compliance functions and their role in ensuring comprehensive management of all risks faced by banks in the UAE. Further, the forum addressed several matters mainly underscoring the areas that banks have to evaluate like the scope and skills of their compliance function and properly embed the compliance risk within the overall risk appetite framework.

During the forum, CBUAE presented the supervisory agenda of the bank’s Anti-Money Laundering Department by focusing on complying with the actions recommended by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

“The UAE is strongly committed to applying FATF standards to ensure that its financial system is safe and sound. We urge financial institutions to retain their focus on combatting money laundering and financing of terrorism. We see Chief Compliance Officers as our partners in this journey. We expect that these regular forums organized by the Central Bank will provide a solid platform for regulatory dialogue with the industry.”

Further, the meeting participants were given an updated data on the progress of the national initiative for digitalizing the “Know-your-customer” process across the banking sector to ensure uniform regulatory standards, a high level of compliance and increased efficiency.

UBF’s Compliance Committee affirmed their commitment to back the CBUAE and other UAE authorities to strengthen the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) framework.