Annex 1. Synopsis of the Guidance
Effective from 15/8/2021| PART I: REGISTERED HAWALA PROVIDERS AND LICENSED FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS | ||
| Introduction | Purpose | The purpose of this Guidance is to assist the understanding and effective performance by the Registered Hawala Providers and other Licensed Financial Institutions (LFIs) of their statutory obligations under the legal and regulatory framework in force in the UAE. |
| Applicability | This Guidance applies to all natural and legal persons which are licensed and/or supervised by the CBUAE in the following categories: Registered Hawala Providers ("RHP"), National banks, branches of foreign banks, and Exchange houses. | |
| Legal Basis | This Guidance builds upon the provisions of UAE laws and regulations, including the AML-CFT Law, the AML-CFT Decision, the Cabinet Decision 74 of 2020 and the Registered Hawala Providers Regulation issued by the CBUAE ("Circular No. 24/2019"). | |
| Overview of Hawala activity | Hawala is an activity based on trust and was established to avoid high charges by people who cannot afford them, the ability to reach beneficiaries in remote places quickly where banks do not operate, and the existence of strict currency controls in some countries. While hawala providers, also known as hawaladars, often use banking channels to settle between them, what makes them distinct from other money transmitters is their use of other settlement methods, including trade, cash, and long-term net settlement. | |
| Global risks of Hawala Activity | Hawaladars' business model is built around satisfying customers' needs to move money rapidly across borders, a service that may also be misused by criminals as it is to individuals seeking to conduct legitimate personal remittances. The risk of a hawala provider is influenced by the regulatory environment and illicit finance risks in the jurisdictions in which they do business, the products and services they provide, and their customer base. | |
| Regulation in the UAE | The CBUAE permits legitimate Hawala Activity as an important element of its continuous efforts to support financial inclusion and bring the unbanked population into the regulated financial system. To this end, Hawala is regulated by the Registered Hawala Providers Regulation issued by the CBUAE. All providers carrying on Hawala Activity in the UAE must hold a Hawala Provider Certificate issued by the CBUAE; it is not permitted to carry on Hawala Activity without being registered with the CBUAE. Registered Hawala Providers (RHP) are only permitted to provide well-defined services that include non- commercial personal remittances and money transfer services to support commercial operations. RHP are not permitted to engage in any of the following transactions: Take deposits, exchange currencies or sell and purchase travellers' cheques; Provide any financial services other than money transfers (e.g. exchange of virtual assets/cryptocurrencies, loans, purchase of debts); or Execute transactions involving or on behalf of any other hawala provider in the UAE. This excludes the agents of the RHP in a foreign country. | |
| PART II: GUIDANCE FOR REGISTERED HAWALA PROVIDERS | ||
| Sanctions Obligations | Targeted Financial Sanctions (TFS)are legal restrictions on financial activity imposed by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) or the UAE. RHP are required to fully comply with the obligation to implement all necessary measures without delay as described in the Cabinet Decision 74 of 2020, the "Guidance on TFS for FIs and Designated Non-Financial Business and Professions (DNFBPs)' issued by the Executive Office of the Committee for Goods & Material Subject to Import and Export Control, the CBUAE's Guidance for LFIs on the implementation of TFS, the CBUAE Notice No. 3895/2021, and any of their amendments or updates thereof. RHP should be aware that it is a crime in the UAE to provide funds or financial services, including money transmissions services, to a person subject to TFS. Appropriate implementation of TFS has four key steps, which RHP must follow to ensure they are compliant:
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| Registration and other Requirements | Registration | A resident natural person or legal person may not carry on Hawala Activity in the UAE unless the applicant holds a Hawala Provider Certificate issued by the CBUAE and is registered in the CBUAE Hawala Providers Register. |
| CBUAE Notification of Approval/Rejection | The CBUAE may agree or decline an application for a Hawala Provider Certificate and will notify the applicant in writing of its decision. | |
| Re-Registration | RHP should submit to the CBUAE an application for renewal of the Hawala Provider Certificate within a period not less than two months from the date of expiry of the original certificate or any renewals thereof. | |
| Requirements for Trade License, Security and Reporting Systems | RHP are required to complete the following requirements within 90 days from the date mentioned in the final registration certificate as well as submit proof of completion to the Licensing Division of the CBUAE:
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| Requirement for a Bank Account | RHP must maintain an account with a bank operating in the UAE to be used for settlement and provide the CBUAE with its details. In addition, they should inform their account manager at the bank of their intention to use the account to carry out Hawala Activity. | |
| AML/CFT program | AML/CFT Program and Compliance Officer | RHP are required to establish and maintain effective AML/CFT compliance programs designed to prevent them from being misused to facilitate money laundering or terrorist financing. The program must be risk-based and appropriate to the risk of the RHP, taking into consideration its size, volume of transactions, types of remittances offered (personal only or personal and commercial), complexity, the nature and volume of its Hawala Activity, the nature of its customer base and the geographic areas in which it operates. Each RHP must have a specific person, the Compliance Officer, who is responsible for day-to-day compliance with the legal and regulatory framework in the UAE and the management of the AML/CFT program. This person must bean employee, manager, or owner of the RHP depending on the size of the RHP. They should also provide education and training to appropriate personnel and conduct a periodic audit of the AML/CFT program. |
| Understanding Risks | The Compliance Officer should begin the risk assessment process by carefully reading and understanding Parts 1 and II of this Guidance, which contain essential information about the risks faced by an RHP and consider the customer, geographic, products and services, and delivery channel risks. RHP should complete this risk assessment process at least once a year. Where they assess themselves as higher risk, they should take additional precautions. | |
| AML/CFT Program | Customer and Agent Due Diligence | Customer due diligence ("CDD") is the process by which an RHP identifies and understands its customer; it is required by law. The RHP must perform Customer Identification Diligence ("CID"), CDD or Enhanced Due Diligence ("EDD") prior to conducting each and every transaction, even if the customer is a repeat customer. An RHP must not conduct a transaction if the appropriate diligence has not been performed or completed depending on their nature as follows:
RHP may use agents in a foreign country to carry out activity on their behalf in that foreign country. RHP are not permitted to use agents to carry out activity on their behalf in the UAE (also known as "nesting"). RHP are required to perform appropriate due diligence on their agents and monitor their transactions to ensure that they are legitimate, keep up-to-date agent lists for a period of five years and provide them upon request to the CBUAE and/or to relevant authorities within the country in which they operate. |
| Transaction Monitoring and Record Keeping | When an RHP's customer is originating a transaction, the RHP must collect and keep certain information for every transaction. When RHP's customer is receiving the remittance, they must in addition conduct CDD on the beneficiary and make sure that its customer's information matches that of the beneficiary identified in the information provided by the originating hawala provider. RHP must keep all records obtained through the CDD process and maintain records of all transactions for at least five years from the date of completion of the transaction or longer if directed by the CBUAE or any other authority. | |
| Reporting Obligations | Daily Reporting | RHP must upload electronically to the CBUAE's reporting systems on a daily basis the data and details of all transfers, remitters and beneficiaries as per the forms prepared by the CBUAE for this purpose. |
| Quarterly Settlement Statements | RHP must further submit to the CBUAE statements of their settlement accounts on a quarterly basis along with other required forms, as well as provide the CBUAE with any data, information, or statistics it may require. | |
| Reporting Suspicious Transactions to the FIU | If the RHP suspects that a transaction, attempted transaction, activity, or funds (including agents' transactions), constitute, in whole or in part, regardless of the amount, the proceeds of crime, are related to a crime, or are intended to be used in a crime, they must submit a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR), Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) or other report types to the FIU using the goAML portal. RHP must submit this report without delay, meaning as soon as reasonably possible after the transaction takes place or their suspicions develop. Please see also the CBUAE's Guidance for LFIs on Suspicious Transaction Reporting fox further information. | |
| Penalties | Violation of any statutory obligations may be subject to supervisory action, administrative and financial sanctions and penalties as deemed appropriate by the CBUAE. | |
| PART III: GUIDANCE FOR LFIs | ||
| Understanding Risks | Circular 24/2019 requires that RHP must maintain an account with a bank operating in the UAE to be used for settlement and provide the CBUAE with its details. The CBUAE expects LFIs to accept RHP customers, but LFIs must manage the risk that these transactions create through the use of appropriate controls. LFIs must not accept as customers unregistered hawala providers based in the UAE, and must immediately report an STR to the FIU, inform CBUAE when they are detected, and closely monitor the relationship. | |
| Mitigating Risks | Risk-Based Approach | LFIs should take a risk-based approach to the preventive measures they put in place for all customers, including hawala providers. The approach should include at the minimum the conduct of an enterprise risk assessment, identification and assessment of the risks associated with specific customers, and the application of EDD and other preventive measures. |
| CDD and EDD | Customer Identification and verification: LFIs are required to identify and verify the identity of all customers. Among other requirements, LFIs must physically check the original hawala provider registration certificate issued by the CBUAE and keep a copy thereof. LFIs should not form business relationships or conduct transactions with hawala providers without a valid registration certificate issued by the CBUAE (unregistered hawala providers). | |
| Beneficial Owner Identification: Where the hawala provider customers is a legal person, please consult the CBUAE's Guidance for LFIs providing services to Legal Persons and Arrangements for details on the identification of beneficial owners. | ||
| Customer's Business and Business Relationship: It is critical that LFIs have processes and controls in place to ensure that they are able to identify hawaladar customers. LFIs must ensure that they fully understand their customers' source of funds and the business in which they are engaged, the intended use and expected activity on the account, to the extent that they can generally predict and identify activity that does not fit the profile. | ||
| Ongoing Monitoring: All customers must be subjectto ongoing monitoring throughout the business relationship to ensure that transactions are reasonable and legitimate. LFIs are required to ensure that the CDD information they hold on all customers is accurate, complete, and up-to- date. When customers are higher risk, including hawala provider customers, monitoring should be more frequent, intensive, and intrusive. | ||
| Transaction Monitoring and Suspicious Transaction Reporting | Where possible, transaction monitoring systems used to monitor activity of the RHP should also be equipped to identify breaches of the permitted services by RHP. The transaction monitoring system used by LFIs should also be equipped to identify RHP that attempt to conceal activity from the LFI. LFIs must file a Suspicious Transaction Report, Suspicious Activity Report or other report types with the FIU when they have reasonable grounds to suspectthat a transaction, attempted transaction, or funds constitute, in whole or in part, regardless of the amount, the proceeds of crime, are related to a crime, or are intended to be used in a crime. Please see also the CBUAE's Guidance for LFIs on Suspicious Transaction Reporting for further information. | |
| Governance and Training | The specific preventive measures mentioned in this Guidance must take place within, and be supported by, a comprehensive institutional AML/CFT program that is appropriate to the risks the LFI faces. As with all risks to which the LFI is exposed, a training program must ensure that employees are aware of the risks of hawala provider customers, familiar with the obligations of the LFI, and equipped to apply appropriate risk-based controls. | |