The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) has revoked the license of Dirham Exchange, an exchange house operating in the UAE, and struck off its name from the register. It has also canceled the registration of RMB Commercial Brokers Co, a hawaladar operating in the country.
The administrative sanctions were imposed on both the companies, after the CBUAE found out serious regulatory misconduct. The sanctions were imposed pursuant to Article 137 of the Decretal Federal Law No. (14) of 2018 regarding the Central Bank & Organization of Financial Institutions and Activities, and article 14 of the Federal Decree Law No. (20) of 2018 on Combating Money Laundering Crimes, the Financing of Terrorism and the Financing of Illegal Organizations.
The above sanctions are a result of the examinations’ findings conducted by the CBUAE, revealing serious regulatory misconduct, including AML misconduct and collusion in evading CBUAE’s instructions to the exchange house not to engage in remittance transactions with certain countries.
According to the Central Bank, the findings showed that they had a weak compliance framework and failed to comply with their regulatory obligations and to report regulatory breaches to the CBUAE.
The Central Bank had earlier revoked the license of Al Rasheed exchange company on account of “serious regulatory misconduct” earlier this year and canceled the name of the exchange house from its register, after thorough examination of the company’s operations for malpractices.
