The Central Bank of the UAE has issued new rules to help licensed financial institutions (LFIs) – which lend to cash intensive businesses (CIB) such as those in retail, trading, travel and transport – combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

LFIs that offer services to CIBs must take a risk-based approach in their anti-money laundering (AML) programmes and evaluate CIB customers to control their degree of risk, the regulator said in a statement on Sunday.

CIBs are businesses that experience a high volume of cash flows, spanning various industry sectors such as retail, wholesale and trading, travel and transport, according to the central bank.

“LFIs must perform appropriate customer due diligence that comprises customer and beneficial owners’ identification, understanding of the customer business and ongoing monitoring of the business relationship,” the central bank said.

LFIs should also gain appropriate information regarding the source of cash deposited in a customer’s account as well as mandate the use of Emirates IDs for cash deposits in ATMs.

Additionally, LFIs should maintain transaction monitoring systems to identify patterns of potentially suspicious activity that may be linked to money laundering, the financing of terrorism or a criminal offence, and submit transaction reports directly to the UAE’s Financial Intelligence Unit using the goAML portal, the statement said.

The UAE has unveiled various measures to fight and prevent money laundering in the last few months.