US embassy cable - 03ABUDHABI4794

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 004794 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARP, S/CT, INL/ENT, EB/ESC 
STATE PASS FEDERAL RESERVE 
TREASURY FOR ZARATE, GLASER, AND MURDEN 
 
E.O. 12958: NA 
TAGS: EFIN, ETTC, PTER, ECON, TC 
SUBJECT:  UAE ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING ACTIONS 
 
REF: Abu Dhabi 4426 
 
This is a joint Abu Dhabi - Dubai cable. 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: The recent visit of the Financial 
Services Volunteer Corps to the UAE gave emboffs 
and congenoffs a chance to discuss UAE anti-money 
laundering efforts with a number of different 
financial sector interlocutors.  The overwhelming 
perception among bankers in the UAE is that the UAE 
Central Bank is committed to fighting money 
laundering and has come down hard on financial 
institutions to comply with the regulations.  Our 
interlocutors admit that the UAE had to start its 
anti-money laundering efforts from "a low base" but 
state that it is "catching up fast."  They credit 
the Central Bank Governor with pushing this effort. 
End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) UAE Central Bank Governor Sultan Nasser 
Al-Suweidi told the FSVC that his goal was for 
banks and financial institutions to be managed and 
regulated by high quality people and to "keep away 
from trouble."  When FSVC Executive Director J. 
Andrew Spindler praised him for defining success in 
terms of high quality standards rather than 
attracting business, Al-Suweidi noted that a 
country's reputation was key to whether it 
attracted or lost business.  He added that the 
recent IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Dubai 
brought significant benefit to the UAE, but the 
UAE's new prominence on the global financial stage 
could potentially attract the wrong type of 
attention (i.e., sources of dirty money) and the 
UAE needed to be vigilant. 
 
3. (U) Al-Suweidi explained the process that is 
currently in place to deal with money transfers. 
The "remitter" (i.e., transferor) must establish 
his proper identity if the transfer is over 2,000 
dirhams (approximately $500).  The beneficiary, of 
course, must always establish his identity.  If the 
beneficiary is in the UAE, he or she must establish 
identity via a passport or national identity card. 
Money exchangers must keep records.  Money 
transfers of 40,000 dirhams ($11,000) must be 
reported to the Central Bank.  The Central Bank has 
also trained bankers, moneychangers and customs 
agents in how to file suspicious transaction 
reports.   He noted that customs agents had already 
filed 78 reports.  The governor also said that the 
Central Bank was investigating about 80% of all 
reports in order to build up its understanding of 
the situation. 
 
4. (SBU) Al-Suweidi gave his view of Hawala.  He 
said that the Central Bank was in the process of 
voluntarily registering Hawala dealers and had 
received applications from 83 dealers.  He stated 
that for now, the Central Bank had decided to take 
a gradual approach in regard to Hawala dealers and 
"get to know them rather than scare them."  He also 
expressed his irritation at recent reports in U.S. 
press critical of the UAE on money laundering.  He 
noted that the UAE had given 60,000 pages of 
documentation to the U.S. and was cooperating 
closely with the U.S.  Attacks in the papers made 
cooperation more difficult.  The Governor also 
noted that the UAE has had problems getting answers 
to its requests for information on suspicious 
transactions from the U.S. and some other 
countries' FIUs. 
 
5. (SBU) Both UAE and expatriate bankers here give 
the Central Bank Governor generally high marks for 
his commitment to fighting money laundering and for 
pushing the banking system to improve.  Terence 
Allen, the Head of the Investment Banking Division 
at National Bank of Abu Dhabi (protect) said that 
the governor had done a "great job" in improving 
anti-money laundering activities in the banking 
sector.  Abdullah Saleh the Managing Director of 
the National Bank of Dubai (NBD) (protect) said 
that the Central Bank is key to the country's anti- 
money laundering efforts and that anti-money 
laundering regulations were "rigidly enforced."  He 
added that that every time bankers meet with 
Governor Al-Suweidi, he tells them to "do your job" 
by combating money laundering and to "protect the 
reputation of the UAE.  Governor Al-Suweidi is 
always pushing banks to improve their anti-money 
laundering training.  Saleh stated that NBD had 
always kept tight control over transactions even 
before the UAEG implemented its law, and noted that 
it was easy for NBD to shift to a more controlled 
regulatory environment.  He implied that other 
local banks probably had further to go.  According 
to Saleh, NBD has examined 469 transactions over 
the last 6 months.  A handful of those were 
"suspect" and referred through the bank and to the 
Anti-Money Laundering and Suspicious Crimes Unit of 
the Central Bank.  NBD is also careful about 
accounts management and will only open fixed 
deposit accounts for non-residents. 
 
6. (U)  Money laundering was also discussed in a 
joint Abu Dhabi - Dubai American business 
roundtable lunch.  The consensus was that the law 
was good, but that implementation of regulations 
was still catching up.  One lawyer complained that 
her clients were having problems determining how to 
unfreeze their assets.   She said that the Central 
Bank could freeze assets for seven days after which 
the Public Prosecutor's Office could decide to 
extend the freeze during the course of an 
investigation.  Her problem, she said was finding 
out what information was needed to get the assets 
unfrozen, especially when her clients had to deal 
with the Central Bank, the Dubai Criminal 
Investigation Division or the Public Prosecutor's 
office. 
 
7. (U) Representatives of the Dubai International 
Financial Center (DIFC) also noted Governor Al- 
Suweidi's commitment to combating money laundering. 
Although they tried to stress that their 
regulations were broader than the Central Bank's 
and covered insurance companies and other 
institutions that the Central Bank does not 
regulate, they freely admitted that the UAE Anti- 
Money Laundering law will apply in the DIFC and 
that the Central Bank has supervisory authority in 
that area.  Their draft anti-money laundering 
regulations specifically refer to the applicability 
of the UAE anti-money laundering law in the DIFC. 
 
8. (SBU) Comment:  We have long regarded Governor 
Al-Suweidi as committed to combating money 
laundering.  The bankers' and lawyers' comments are 
a welcome confirmation that the Central Bank and 
the UAEG are actively implementing their anti-money 
laundering efforts.  Al-Suweidi runs one of the 
UAE's most effective federal institutions, and his 
leadership has been instrumental in the UAE's anti- 
money laundering efforts.  End Comment. 
 
Albright