A crucial step to improve transparency within the economy and effectively prevent money laundering – more steps taken to ensure compliance with ultimate beneficiary ownership procedures.

“The submission of ultimate beneficial owner data is a necessary step to effectively disclose and reveal the complex structures related to the chain of ownership and its beneficial owner is licensed establishments in the UAE,” the ministry said in a statement.

Commercial free zones companies and those across the country that do not comply with the ultimate beneficiary ownership procedures will be penalized as part of the latest update.

The implementation of penalties for non-compliance will start on July 1 after the grace period to submit the relevant data ends on June 30.

It will begin with a written warning as penalties for non-compliance, followed by a fine of Dh100,000 in the event of repetition and non-compliance. Additional administrative penalties will include the suspension of a company’s license or restrictions on the powers of a company’s board or of the services provided to them.

Steps that companies need to take to ensure compliance with ultimate beneficiary data

1. Create a record of the ultimate beneficial owner information, keep it within their documents and present this record upon request from the relevant authorities.
2. Give an undertaking that they are responsible for the accuracy of the data submitted to their licensing authority
3. File the ultimate beneficial owner’s information within the licensing authorities’ systems through dedicated web pages on their official websites.