CBUAE Launches goAML platform in Partnership with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Abu Dhabi, UAE: UAE Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) announced the launch of their new reporting platform (goAML), developed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), to facilitate the receipt, analysis and dissemination of suspicious transactions and activity reports to the UAE’s Law Enforcement Authorities.  The FIU will use the goAML to gather and analyse intelligence submitted by reporting entities, which is then analysed and disseminated to law enforcement authorities when deemed necessary.

H.E. Mubarak Rashed Al Mansoori, Governor of CBUAE and Chairperson of the National Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism and Illegal Organizations Committee, said “We are proud to be the first country in the GCC to go live with goAML. Our objective have always been to provide support for UAE’s financial institutions in line with global standards. The platform will act as an integral part of the FIU by elevating its IT infrastructure, strengthening a country wide cooperation against criminal activity. This will also help us better observe trends when analysing suspicious transaction reports, helping eliminate potential threats at more efficient rates”.   

In collaboration with UNODC, the platform was specifically customised to commensurate with the requirements of the UAE’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) framework and key stakeholders.

Judge Hatem Fouad Aly, Regional Representative of UNODC said: “The UNODC works in partnership with the National Anti-Money Laundering Committee and alongside several government entities, including the FIU, to aid in the development of essential programmes such as the goAML. The platform was developed by UNODC as a strategic response against financial crime, as advised by the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. It is a one-stop, fully integrated solution that meets the IT needs of most FIUs, with the primary objective of enhancing the capacity of Member States to detect financial crime and to meet international standards relating to money laundering and terrorist financing”.

Through this project, the UAE Central Bank and UNODC also contribute to the efforts of the international community towards implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly Sustainable Development Goal 16 and its Target 16.4 (‘By 2030, significantly reduce illicit financial and arms flows, strengthen the recovery and return of stolen assets and combat all forms of organised crime’).

Entities such as financial institutions (i.e. banks, exchange houses, finance companies), law enforcement, Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs), etc. will witness an increased level of coordination as a result of the effective and user-friendly nature of the goAML platform.

Ali Ba'Alawi, Acting Head of Financial Intelligence Unit, said: “The goAML provided the necessary infrastructure to allow the FIU to build a customised module to connect various intelligence databases, enriching the level of intelligence and identifying complex and possible organised criminal activities. The FIU aims to ensure an overall safer community by preventing money laundering, financing of terrorism and any illicit financial activity. goAML will help the FIU achieve its aim.”

The Financial Intelligence Unit, being the central repository of financial intelligence in the UAE, will exchange intelligence with the relevant stakeholders domestically through the goAML, hence enhancing the UAE’s national coordination.

Reporting entities are encouraged to complete their registration before 27 June 2019.  For more information on the registration process please reach us through: goaml@cbuae.gov.ae 

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© Press Release 2019