goAML Registration in Dubai & the UAE

goAML is the reporting platform of the UAE Financial Intelligence Unit. Financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions — real estate brokers, dealers in precious metals and stones, accountants, auditors, corporate service providers, lawyers and notaries — register on it so they can file the reports the AML rules require. If you are unsure whether you are in scope, we check your activities first.

The main ones are suspicious transaction reports and suspicious activity reports, which any business in scope must file when it suspects money laundering or terrorist financing. Dealers in precious metals and stones also report cash transactions of AED 55,000 or more, and real estate businesses file activity reports on the property transactions the rules specify. Sanctions screening matches are reported through the platform too.

Normally the compliance officer, who registers as the organisation’s main user and is responsible for the reports it files. You can add a deputy or other users, such as an alternate who covers absences, under the organisation’s account. Access should be limited to the people who genuinely need it, because reports and their contents are confidential.

The compliance officer activates the account and can then submit reports and receive messages from the FIU through the platform. Registration alone does not make you compliant: you still need the risk assessment, due diligence, screening and training that sit behind each report. We can set those up through our AML compliance programme service if they are not yet in place.

No. Disclosing to a customer, or to anyone else, that a suspicious transaction report has been or may be filed — known as tipping off — is prohibited under the UAE’s AML rules. Reports and the information in them must be kept confidential. Our training covers how staff should deal with a customer while a report is being considered.

You need to appoint a replacement and update the goAML registration so the new officer can access the account and file reports, and notify your supervisor where its rules require it. A gap in reporting cover is a compliance risk in itself, so we help you appoint a deputy in advance and handle the handover on the platform.