The United Arab Emirates, house to the monetary heart of Dubai, was faraway from the worldwide monetary crime watchdog’s checklist on Friday.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a physique that teams nations from the United States to China to sort out monetary crime, on Friday dropped the UAE from its ‘gray checklist’ of round two dozen nations thought-about dangerous.
The Gulf nation, a magnet for millionaires, bankers and hedge funds, was positioned beneath nearer scrutiny in 2022, when the FATF highlighted the danger of cash laundering and terrorist financing involving banks, valuable metals and stones in addition to property.
The delisting is a coup for the one-time regional pearl and fish buying and selling hub which is now one of many world’s wealthiest nations after the invention of oil in Abu Dhabi within the late Nineteen Fifties.
It had made getting off the checklist a precedence, bolstering its anti-money-laundering efforts in a drive spearheaded by the minister of overseas affairs and brother of President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
John Kartonchik, a director at UAE assume tank Re/assume, mentioned the transfer might increase confidence within the nation and appeal to extra money from abroad.
“Investors … may feel more secure,” he mentioned.
Banks would additionally be capable of lower the price of coping with rich shoppers within the nation, mentioned a senior banker, who requested to not be named.
Despite being grey-listed, the UAE continued to draw the globe’s rich and it’s an more and more widespread vacation spot for cryptocurrency corporations and Russians within the wake of struggle with Ukraine.
Dubai’s luxurious property market trailed solely New York, Los Angeles and London in 2022, in response to property guide Knight Frank, whereas the UAE final yr overtook Belgium to turn out to be the world’s buying and selling hub for tough diamonds.
Nonetheless, the delisting jars with the evaluation of European officers.
The European Union lists the UAE as a high-risk nation for cash laundering and terrorist financing, alongside greater than two dozen different states corresponding to South Africa, North Korea and Afghanistan.
The bloc’s monetary markets watchdog ESMA final yr barred European banks and others from clearing trades with the Dubai Commodities Clearing Corporation.
Markus Meinzer, director of coverage on the Tax Justice Network, which campaigns for monetary transparency, mentioned the elimination of the UAE confirmed the FATF checklist was ineffective.
“There is room for interpretation of the rules,” he mentioned. “It’s easy to comply without changing much. Understanding how decisions are taken is impossible because they happen behind closed doors.”
Jonny Bell, director of monetary crime compliance and funds at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, mentioned the UAE would possible proceed strengthening its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures.
There is growing competitors amongst Gulf states to develop non-oil sectors corresponding to monetary providers, commerce and logistics, and tourism. Attracting cash from overseas is a central a part of that effort.
Measures taken by the UAE embrace growing monetary investigations and prosecutions, boosting worldwide cooperation, and aligning digital asset regulation with worldwide requirements.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
