UAE Central Bank revokes licence of exchange house over ‘regulatory misconduct’
The license house failed to comply with most of its regulatory obligations
Dubai: The UAE Central Bank (CBUAE) has revoked the licence of a Dubai-based exchange house for committing serious regulatory misconduct, including deliberately suppressing remittance turnover and failing to meet its liquidity requirements.
CBUAE has struck off Al Rasheed exchange house’s name from the Register under Article 137 of the Decretal Federal Law No. (14) of 2018 Regarding the Central Bank and Organisation of Financial Institutions and Activities.
“The sanction is the result of the findings of an examination conducted by the CBUAE, which revealed serious regulatory misconduct by the exchange house,” UAE’s apex bank said on Monday.
The exchange house was also found to have deliberately provided incorrect information to the CBUAE, engaging in serious anti-money laundering (AML) malpractice and transferring its licence without obtaining a letter of no objection from the CBUAE.
“The findings showed that Al Rasheed had a weak compliance framework and had failed to comply with its regulatory obligations. The time set for submitting an appeal has expired, and an appeal has not been submitted,” stated the Central Bank.
Earlier this month, the Central Bank fined another financial company Dh1.8 million for not adhering to the regulations. Findings from CBUAE illustrated that the finance company engaged in high-risk, repeated violations and had an overall weak compliance culture relating to policies and procedures designed for AML and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CFT)
“The CBUAE, through its supervisory and regulatory mandates, works to ensure that all exchange houses, their owners and staff abide by the UAE laws,” said the Central Bank.