AML

DNFBP (Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions) is a category of businesses that are not financial institutions but must comply with AML/CFT requirements on par with banks: real estate agents, dealers in precious metals and stones, trust and company service providers, accountants, auditors, lawyers, notaries, and commercial gaming operators.

The short answer. Since 14 October 2025 the United Arab Emirates has had a new primary statute on anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and counter-proliferation financing — Federal Decree-Law No. 10 of 2025 — and since 14 December 2025 its executive regulations, Cabinet Resolution No. 134 of 2025. The previous statute, Federal Decree-Law No. 20 of 2018, and its regulations, Cabinet Resolution No. 10 of 2019, have been repealed in full. For an ordinary UAE company this translates into five practical changes: a new category of obliged person, a new AED 11,000 threshold, mandatory prior approval of the compliance officer by the supervisory authority, an express prohibition on bearer shares, and a new floor for administrative fines of AED 10,000 instead of AED 50,000.

Every company registered on the UAE mainland or in a commercial free zone must maintain a register of beneficial owners and a register of partners or shareholders, and file their data with the Registrar — the licensing authority of its own jurisdiction. The requirement sits in Cabinet Decision No. 109 of 2023 on Regulating the Beneficial Owner Procedures. A separate obligation, covering a different population, is registration on the Financial Intelligence Unit’s goAML platform: it applies to financial institutions, designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs) and virtual asset service providers.