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The Central Bank of the UAE imposed a financial sanction of AED 1,820,000 on a branch of a foreign bank operating in the UAE pursuant to Article 137 of the relevant federal law. The Emirates News Agency distributed details of the decision in a statement that did not name the bank or specify the underlying violation. CBUAE enforcement records list the action among several taken against foreign institutions in recent years.
According to the central bank’s published enforcement page, the regulator imposed financial sanctions of AED 18.1 million on two branches of foreign banks on May 28, 2025. A follow-up release on July 2, 2025, from the CBUAE covered a separate AED 5.9 million penalty imposed on another branch of a foreign bank. The authority maintains a public catalog of all such decisions to document its supervisory activities.
WAM reported that the CBUAE imposed a financial penalty of AED 20 million on a branch of a foreign bank on June 24, 2026. A Global Investigations blog post dated June 26, 2026, attributed that penalty to significant and repeated failures in the branch’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and sanctions compliance programs. The same post noted that the head of compliance and money laundering reporting officer received a personal fine of AED 300,000 in the matter.
The CBUAE enforcement section on its website records these and other regulatory measures in chronological order. Each entry references the legal article under which the sanction was applied. The listings cover both financial penalties and occasional license revocations for licensed entities.
A PwC Middle East assessment of GCC financial regulation highlighted the CBUAE’s active enforcement role in recent reform efforts. The review identified enforcement actions as one indicator of oversight intensity across the bloc. The consultant’s report drew on data from multiple regulatory announcements including those from the UAE.
CBUAE announcements show that penalties on foreign bank branches in the referenced cases total AED 45.82 million. The components consist of the AED 20 million penalty from June 2026, the AED 18.1 million from May 2025, the AED 5.9 million from July 2025 and the AED 1.82 million sanction that is the subject of this report. The authority continues to issue updates on its enforcement activities through official channels.
