Mon, Apr 21th, 2014

 

ABU DHABI // The FNC has made a number of amendments to its key money-laundering legislation. The name of the draft law has been changed to “the anti-money-laundering and combating the financing of terrorism” law. It was previously known as the “anti-money-laundering offences” law.

 

The first draft had included four activities that were considered criminal offences – transferring, depositing, transmitting or replacing money with the purpose of hiding or disguising its illicit origin. The FNC committee has added two more offences: saving or investing in illegal money.

 

The amendments aim to criminalise money laundering and to address some of the issues raised by International Monetary Fund experts in their evaluation report on the UAE’s system to combat the illegal practice.

 

The changes were made by the FNC’s Financial and Economic Affairs Committee yesterday.

 

Committee member Ali Al Nuami (Ajman), said: “The addition of ‘financing of terrorism’ covers the area the committee is trying to combat. Other countries have the same definition, therefore it is official and well known.”

 

The committee has also created a database to be used by the Central Bank’s Financial Information Unit to tackle money laundering.

 

The law will be discussed next week.