Norton Rose Fulbright explains that the UAE’s new AML regime significantly strengthens compliance, enforcement and accountability by expanding offences, lowering liability thresholds and aligning with FATF standards

The new framework, built on Federal Law No. 10 of 2025 and its Executive Regulation, broadens the scope of offences to include proliferation financing, expands predicate offences and lowers the evidentiary threshold so liability can arise where individuals or firms “should have known” about illicit activity.
It also increases supervisory and enforcement powers, introduces stronger senior management liability, and extends AML obligations to higher-risk sectors such as virtual asset service providers and gaming, signalling a more proactive and outcomes-focused enforcement approach.