3.4 Record Keeping
Under Article 16 of AML-CFT Law and Article 24 of the AML-CFT Decision, RHP, as remittance providers, have very important obligations relating to the records they maintain about the remittances they execute.
3.4.1 Record Keeping Related to Remittances
1. Sending a Remittance
When the RHP's customer is the person originating a transaction, the RHP must collect the following information through the CID and CDD process:
• The sending customer's name; • His or her Emirates ID, or passport number when Emirates ID is not available; • His or her date and nationality; • His or her address; • Mobile number; • Occupation; and • The name of the beneficiary of the transaction and the country it is sent to.
The RHP must assign the transaction a unique ID number that allows the RHP to quickly identify and track the transaction. The RHP must provide all of this information to the hawala provider at the other end of the transaction and keep the relevant record. The RHP must not carry out the transaction if it has not supplied this information.
2. Receiving a Remittance
When the RHP's customer is the person receiving the remittance, the RHP must conduct CDD on the beneficiary and make sure that its customer's information matches that of the beneficiary identified in the information provided by the Originating Hawala Provider and keep the relevant record. The information must include:
• The receiving customer's name; • His or her Emirates ID, or passport number when Emirates ID is not available; • His or her date and nationality; • His or her address; • Mobile number; • Occupation; and • The name of the sender of the transaction and the country it is sent from.
The RHP's partners and agents outside the UAE should comply with the requirements under ``Sending a Remittance'' above even though they are not subject to UAE laws. If a RHP receives a transaction order from a hawala provider outside the UAE that does not contain the information required under ``Sending a Remittance'' above, it cannot perform required sanctions screening or identify whether the transaction is suspicious and needs to be reported to the FIU. Therefore, the RHP should require its agent or counterpart to provide the information listed before it releases the funds to the beneficiary.
3.4.2 Other Types of Record Keeping
According to the AML-CFT Law and the AML-CFT Decision, RHP must keep all records obtained through the CDD process; copies of personal identification documents provided during CDD; and copies of Suspicious Transaction Reports (STR) filed with the FIU. Under Article 4 of Circular No. 24/2019, RHP are required to have forms in which the customers fills in the necessary information to originate the transaction; RHP must retain these forms as well.
RHP must also maintain records of transactions. These records must be sufficiently detailed to allow authorities to reconstruct and understand the transaction. They must at least include the names of the sender and beneficiary, the date of the transaction, and the amount of the transaction, and be organized in such a way so that the RHP and authorities can easily find the records they need for a specific transaction.
RHP must make the records described here, or any other records, available to the competent authorities immediately upon request. All the records described in this section must be kept for at least five (5) years, from the date of completion of the transaction, or for longer if directed by the CBUAE or other authority.