The Central Bank of the UAE imposed financial sanctions totalling AED 2,621,000 on five banks and two insurance companies on 25 March 2025, penalising the institutions for failing to meet the compliance standards required under the Common Reporting Standard and the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. The CBUAE stated that the sanctions reflected failures in due diligence procedures and inaccuracies in financial reporting, and noted that all affected institutions had been given ample time to rectify the identified deficiencies before enforcement action was taken by the regulator.
The names of the seven institutions were not disclosed in the regulator's announcement. The sanctions were imposed under the UAE's legal framework for implementing both CRS, the OECD's multilateral standard for the automatic exchange of financial account information, and FATCA, the United States legislation that requires foreign financial institutions to report on accounts held by US persons and to withhold tax on certain payments where reporting obligations are not met.
CRS REPORTING IN THE UAE
The UAE began automatic exchanges under the OECD's Common Reporting Standard in 2018, committing to participate in the automatic exchange of financial account information with partner jurisdictions. Under CRS, UAE financial institutions are required to identify account holders who are tax resident in other participating countries and report their account information to the Ministry of Finance, which then shares it with the relevant foreign tax authorities.
FATF GREY LIST
The UAE was removed from the Financial Action Task Force's grey list in February 2024.