Lógica de reporte

In response to the increasing international concern regarding money laundering within the Middle East, the UAE financial sector embarked on a re-evaluation of their AML strategies as well as procedures to ensure that they were compliant with the laws and regulations of the Central Bank of the UAE. In line with Article 17 of the Central Bank Circular Number 24/2000, the UAEs Central Bank compliance officer was, and still is, expected to monitor and evaluate financial transactions carried out by financial sector employees in charge of processing and managing accounts.395 It is questionable, however, to what extent the Central Bank wants to prevent money laundering. With only one officer (at the time of this research) for an expanding financial sector the monitoring of transactions is limited. Those in the financial sector will no doubt be aware of this, and therefore perhaps behave in a manner that is unethical. There was no evidence in this research to suggest this, but with minimal supervision it is possible that some employees might ‘cut corners’ with expected procedures396. This is not to suggest that all employees will be unethical in transferring funds but a system of surveillance beyond one person is needed to properly monitor and deter those that might be tempted to ‘break the rules’ and circumvent money laundering regulations (see chapter six). Furthermore, regulatory documents as well as laws make it clear that training is essential for employees of the Central Bank to help prevent money laundering. It, however, does not include instructions on what the training ought to cover or how it should be implemented.

The main objective of the Money Laundering Regulations is that they are undertaken and the appropriate and proportionate measures that can deter, disrupt and detect money laundering are implemented. Therefore, all AML regulations apply to those working in the financial sector(s) such as practising accountants, consultants and advisors. Based on the Money Laundering

395 In the year 2000, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates established the National Anti-Money Laundering Committee, which currently has overall responsibility for ensuring that coordination of anti-money laundering policies is well implemented within the country.

396 However, cultural aspects, such as in Islamic law, may have an influence in this area, but includes a large base of social research that is not added to this study.

Regulations of 2007 that was explicitly enshrined in the United Kingdom legislation, and on which the UAE has drawn (see chapter two), the concept of a risk-based approach to the issues of AML is paramount. Businesses are required to establish adequate and appropriate policies as well as procedures associated with risk assessment and management as a way of preventing money laundering and terrorism by undertaking due diligence assessments397 on new and existing customers. This sadly is not always the case regardless of the jurisdiction (see previous chapter and examples of the HSBC and Mexican cartels).

Furthermore, the recording of the processes involved have to be documented or displayed within a written policy and the design and implementation of the necessary controls aimed at managing and mitigating such risks and the recording of their operations has to be taken into consideration. Both individual practitioners and businesses must assess risks associated with money laundering on various financial products and services, types of clients, their jurisdictions of origins, investment, how they conduct their businesses, funding and sectors. During this risk assessment process, the practitioners and businesses must apply a clear risk categorisation of low, normal and high. This approach is considered to be valid and, as a result of its rationale, it becomes capable of reducing complexity, but with a retained element of discretion as well as flexibility, especially in cases where the risk ratings can either be raised or lowered through appropriate management as a way of responding to a specific or exceptional circumstance. A risk-based approach to customer(s) due diligence will categorise situations which, by their nature, can reflect a risk of activity potentially associated with money laundering or terrorism.398

397 William C. Gilmore, Dirty money: the evolution of international measures to counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism (Council of Europe 2011)

Gilmore, William C. 1999. Dirty Money: The evolution of money laundering Counter-measures. Council of Europe Press, Strasbourg, 2nd ed.

398 William C. Gilmore. 'Dirty Money: The evolution of money laundering counter-measures. Rev. and expanded' (2000)

AML process and policies, however, can be integrated into the existing risk management systems or placed separately and outside business practices. The policies and procedures of AML are considered to be important to businesses, if they are contributing to the mitigation of risks of financial fraud. Practices should therefore involve the application of a risk-based approach in order to allow efforts to be concentrated on the higher risk.399 The UAE, therefore, considers AML measures as not only the attempts to control the acts of financial crime, but also a means of depriving criminals of the power that enables them to achieve their objectives. They are thus considered as important steps for completing as well as modernising AML legislation.

However, due to a review of the current practices by the National Committee, in 2000 the Central Bank issued Circular 24/2000, which strengthened and expanded AML requirements for the financial sector. This circular covers all the banks, money exchanges and finance institutions operating within the UAE. It expects procedures to be followed regarding the identification of both natural and the juridical persons, and request and photocopy necessary documents for identification, and rules on the type of customer records which ought to be maintained in the files at the processing institution. This expectation, however, is often more in hope than reality, as the results (see chapter six) shows, even now many years after is implementation.

However, other conditions of Circular 24/2000 seem to be followed as it was clear from the research that customer records were maintained with further periodical updates provided for the Central Bank, if requested. 400 These regulations are in need of updating once more with the development and expansion of the financial sector in Dubai. Most of all, though, and this is a recurring theme in this chapter, the monitoring of the financial system is in need of review; a

399 Bell, R. E. 2002. An Introductory Who’s who for Money Laundering Investigators,” Journal of Money Laundering Control. Vol. 5, No. 4: pp. 287-295.

400 James R. Richards, Transnational criminal organizations, cybercrime, and money laundering: a handbook for law enforcement officers, auditors, and financial investigators (CRC 1999)

policy document, regulation(s), and laws are of little use if there are limited resources (i.e., people) to monitor transactions. This is also relevant to the Money Laundering Law of 2002.