The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) has imposed an AED 1.82 million financial penalty on the branch of an unnamed foreign bank operating in the country for a breach of consumer-protection rules, the regulator said on 6 July 2026. The sanction relates to the branch's failure to issue a liability letter to a customer within the mandatory seven-day period prescribed by the Central Bank's rules on customer service.
The penalty was imposed under Federal Decree-Law No. 6 of 2025 concerning the Central Bank and reflects a violation of the CBUAE's Market Conduct and Consumer Protection Regulations and Standards. The regulator did not name the institution, in line with its usual approach when publicising enforcement action linked to individual conduct failings by licensed financial institutions in the UAE market.
CONSUMER PROTECTION BREACH
Liability letters are a routine but sensitive part of retail banking service, typically confirming a customer's outstanding balances and obligations for use in transactions such as loan settlement, refinancing or a change of employer. Delays in issuing them can hold up other financial arrangements and are treated by the CBUAE as a matter of consumer harm rather than a mere administrative slip, particularly where they affect customers' ability to move between employers or lenders.
The seven-day service level is prescribed by the CBUAE's consumer protection framework, which sets binding standards on how licensed financial institutions must handle customer requests, disclosures and complaints. The Market Conduct and Consumer Protection Regulations and Standards were introduced as part of a broader push to align the UAE market with international good practice in retail conduct supervision and to raise service expectations across the banking sector.
By publicising the fine, the CBUAE signalled to the wider industry that timeliness in customer service is being monitored and that breaches can result in six-figure dirham penalties even where the underlying failing appears procedural. The action reinforces the regulator's message that consumer-protection compliance is a first-order supervisory priority and not a peripheral concern.
SUPERVISORY POWERS AND ENFORCEMENT TRAJECTORY
The AED 1.82 million penalty was imposed under Federal Decree-Law No. 6 of 2025, the current legal framework governing the Central Bank's supervisory powers. That legislation consolidates the authority's ability to sanction licensed financial institutions for breaches of prudential, conduct and anti-financial-crime obligations, and provides the statutory basis for the graduated set of penalties the regulator can apply.
The CBUAE has increasingly used its enforcement toolkit in recent supervisory cycles, publishing periodic notices of financial penalties on banks, exchange houses and other licensees. While the identity of the foreign bank branch involved in the current case was withheld, the regulator's willingness to publish the amount and legal basis reinforces its stated policy of transparency around conduct enforcement, and gives peers a concrete benchmark against which to test their own service-level frameworks.
In its statement, the CBUAE said the action was part of its ongoing supervision to ensure that licensed institutions adhere to the standards required under the consumer protection framework and the Central Bank law. Firms operating branches or subsidiaries in the UAE are therefore on clear notice that customer-facing service levels — even in areas as apparently technical as liability letter issuance — will be tested by the regulator and enforced through financial penalties where breaches are identified.