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  • 2.3 Vulnerabilities of Cash-Intensive Businesses

    • 2.3.1 Types of Cash-Intensive Businesses

      Cash-intensive businesses are businesses that experience a high volume of cash flows. However, because cash-based transactions are inherently difficult to trace, as discussed above, cash-intensive businesses may potentially be used as vehicles for money laundering and the financing of terrorism and illegal organisations. Businesses that generate a large volume of cash revenue may be susceptible to abuse by illicit actors that integrate the proceeds of crime into the banking system under the guise of legitimate business. In particular, they may exploit cash-intensive businesses for money laundering and the financing of terrorism and illegal organisations by using cash-intensive business to:

       Provide a front to launder large amounts of cash and reinvest cash proceeds of crime in the economy;
       
       Co-mingle illicit and legitimate income; and
       
       Finance, though often through small amounts of cash, terrorist activities without traceability.
       

      Cash-intensive businesses span across various industry sectors. Most of these businesses are operating a legitimate business; however, some aspects of these businesses may be vulnerable to money laundering or the financing of terrorism and illegal organisations. Examples of cash-intensive businesses include but are not limited to the following:

       Convenience stores;
       
       Retail stores;
       
       Restaurants;
       
       Wholesale or general trading businesses;
       
       Travel agencies and tour operators; and
       
       Car dealers.
       

      In addition, please consult the CBUAE’s Guidance for Licensed Financial Institutions providing services to the Real Estate and the Precious Metals and Stones sector3 for further information.

      LFIs may expand on the above by considering additional factors when identifying cash-intensive businesses in their customer base. For example LFIs can define cash-intensive businesses based on specific criteria, such as a proportion or more of the business’ revenue is in cash or the business has a monthly revenue in cash above a certain threshold. In either scenario, the definition of cash-intensive business should be determined by the LFI, justified by a sound methodology that considers various factors including risk and characteristics, documented in the LFI’s policies and procedures, and approved by the LFI’s senior management.

      The LFI should monitor whether the cash-intensive business appears to generate unusual transactions compared to the business’ expected activity and profile, and with other similar cash-intensive businesses. For example, a small business making significantly larger amounts of cash deposits than other businesses of a similar size in the same industry should be reviewed for potential money laundering activity. The extent of the vulnerability presented by cash-intensive businesses may be particularly severe due to large volumes of cash transactions, limited record keeping, and high customer turnover. LFIs should therefore understand the nature and purpose of the business relationship and expected activity of the customer in order to identify types of transactions that appear to be unusual, potentially suspicious, and/or inconsistent with the customer’s profile and stated purpose of the account.

      The following sections examine common features of cash-intensive businesses that impact risk. LFIs should consider the specific risks posed by these features to determine whether the customer is considered as high-risk and should be subject to enhanced due diligence (“EDD”) measures. LFIs should incorporate this assessment into their AML/CFT program and update their policies, procedures, and processes with the aim to detect illicit activity and manage illicit financing risks.


      3 Available at https://www.centralbank.ae/en/cbuae-amlcft

      • 2.3.1.1 Cross-Border Movement of Cash and Cash Couriers

        Cash-intensive businesses may move cash across borders as part of their business model. Cross-border movement of licit cash can be legal, subject to compliance with reporting and other relevant legal and regulatory requirements. However, criminals may also seek to move cash across borders; according to FATF, the physical transportation of cash across an international border is “one of the oldest and most basic forms of money laundering” and is still widely used today.4 The criminal economy tends to be cash-based with illicit proceeds of crime moving quickly and anonymously, including across borders. Illicit actors often choose to remove their illicit assets from a bank account in order to obscure the audit trail by transporting it to another country where they can spend the cash on goods or services or reintroduce the cash into the financial system. Illicit actors who generate cash proceeds also seek to move their profits to jurisdictions that will allow the placement of cash into the legal economy without detection. Their selection of a jurisdiction can be driven by the predominant use of cash in that jurisdiction, the weaker AML/CFT controls of a jurisdiction’s financial system including few or no restrictions on cash payments, or a jurisdiction’s reputation as a banking secrecy haven. Illicit actors can exploit the high volume of passenger, cargo, and mail movements into and out of jurisdictions to move cash without attracting the attention of authorities.

        Cash-intensive businesses may utilize cash couriers to move cash across borders. Cash couriers are natural persons who physically transport currency and bearer negotiable instruments on their person or accompanying luggage from one jurisdiction to another. Couriers may be directly involved in the underlying crime or may be third parties recruited specifically to move money to another jurisdiction. Mechanisms to conceal the cash include within pieces of clothing on the physical persons (such as a money belt), hidden within luggage, or even concealed internally. Cash couriers may use air, sea, or rail transport to cross an international border and typically use high denomination banknotes as part of their transportation, which decreases the size and bulk of low denomination banknotes.

        Specifically, cross-border movements of cash across an international border are used to:

         Launder proceeds of crime by placing them in another jurisdiction, typically with weaker AML/CFT controls.
         Move illicit value to purchase assets that can hold considerable value, such as luxury goods, or transfer the value of the funds for them to be stored.
         Hide proceeds from authorities and complicate asset recovery.
         

        It is not illegal to move cash into or out of the UAE. However, natural or legal persons must declare upon entering or leaving the UAE any currencies, bearer negotiable instruments, precious metals and stones above the threshold of AED 60,000. The relevant extract of the Regulation on the Declaration of Currencies, Bearer Negotiable Instruments, and Precious Metals and Stones in Possession of Travelers Entering or Leaving the UAE (issued in the Official Gazette No 703 dated 31/05/2021) is in the box below.

        Article (8) of Federal Decree-Law No. (20) of 2018 on Anti Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and the financing of Illegal Organizations stipulates that (when entering or leaving the country, any person must declare the currencies or bearer negotiable financial instruments, precious metals or stones of value, in accordance with the declaration regulation issued by the Central Bank).

        Accordingly, the Board of Directors of the Central Bank has decided that the maximum threshold for currencies, bearer negotiable instruments, and precious metals and stones, shall be in accordance with the table below, and shall apply to all forms of physical cross-border transportation, whether by travelers or through mail and cargo. Bearer negotiable instruments mean financial instruments of whatever form, whether in the form of a bearer document, such as travelers checks, promissory checks, payment orders, or others. Based on the above, any natural or legal person shall declare upon entering or leaving the UAE any currencies, bearer negotiable instruments, precious metals and stones above the threshold specified in the table and shall provide an honest and clear answer and adequate information to the Customs authority and its staff upon request. Declarations shall also be made for currencies, bearer negotiable instruments, precious metals or stones of a value exceeding the specified threshold crossing the border through cargo, mail or shipments transported using transport service companies using the official customs systems of the UAE.

         

        Maximum threshold for currencies, bearer negotiable instruments, and precious metals and stones
         
        Currencies/Instruments/Metals/ Precious stonesThreshold above which declaration is required
        1. Currencies (UAE Dhrs or equivalent in other currencies)UAE Dhrs 60,000
        or equivalent in any other
        currencies
        2. Any type of bearer negotiable instrumentsUAE Dhrs 60,000
        or equivalent in any other
        currencies
        3. Precious metals with high economic value in any form, type or classification, provided they are not intended for commercial purposes or transported by a traveler that engages in the same trade or a traveler that transports such materials as a profession and frequently visits the department or the customs port.UAE Dhrs 60,000
        or equivalent in any other currencies
        4. Precious stones with high economic value in any form, type or classification, provided they are not intended for commercial purposes or transported by a traveler that engages in the same trade or a traveler that transports such materials as a profession and frequently visits the department or the customs port.UAE Dhrs 60,000
        or equivalent in any other
        currencies

         

        Understanding whether customers have made any such declarations, in accordance with the Regulation should form part of any due diligence by the LFIs where required. As part of due diligence, LFIs may require additional information on the customer or the transaction, including the source of funds and relevant documentation.

        Potential Risk Indicators:

          oTransactions involving locations or customers originating from locations with poor AML/CFT regimes or high exposure to corruption.
          oSignificant and/or frequent cash deposits or currency exchanges made over a short period of time.
          oCustomer is in possession of money supposedly for business reasons while travelling to countries where cash payments are restricted.
          oCustomer requests to purchase, or has possession of, large volumes of high denomination banknotes.
          oCustomer requests to purchase, or has possession of, large amounts of foreign currency without a plausible explanation.
          oCustomers who use false identification or offer different identifications on separate occasions
         

        4 FATF “Money Laundering through the Physical Transportation of Cash” (October 2015), available at: https://www.fatf- gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/money-laundering-through-transportation-cash.pdf

      • 2.3.1.2 Cash Deposits

        Cash-intensive businesses can be expected to make cash deposits, which is legal and a natural fit with their business model. Illicit actors, however, will seek ways to place their illicit cash into the financial system. Illicit actors involved in cash generating crimes frequently need to use a significant portion of the cash they have acquired to pay for the illicit goods they have sold, to purchase additional goods, and to pay the various expenses incurred in acquiring or transporting the goods. As part of the money laundering process, individuals seek to use the proceeds of crimes by disguising the origin of the funds as legitimate economic activities. Terrorists also seek to finance, often through small amounts of cash, terrorist activities without traceability. LFIs should therefore be aware of cash deposits placed into the banking system that involve high-risk customers and/or geographical areas, third parties without a relationship to the customer, and transactions that lack an apparent business purpose. LFIs should, as the case may be, undertake CDD measures on the third party cash depositors transacting in any accounts above the threshold specified in Article 6 of the AML-CFT Decision. LFIs should also obtain appropriate information regarding the source of cash deposited in a customer’s account as well as mandate the use of Emirates ID for cash deposits in ATMs.

         Potential Risk Indicators:
          oLarge cash deposits followed immediately by withdrawals or electronic transfers.
          oLarge cash deposit followed by an immediate request that the money be wired out or transferred to a third party, without any apparent business purpose.
          oFrequent cash deposits by multiple individuals into a single bank account, followed by international wire transfers and /or international withdrawals through ATMs.
          oLarge cash deposit is followed within a short time by wire transfers to high-risk jurisdictions.
          oNumerous cash deposits made in different bank branches over a short period of time.
          oFrequent cash deposits in small amounts, without any apparent business purpose or reasonable grounds.
          oCustomers who use false identification or offer different identifications on separate ccasions
         
      • 2.3.1.3 Currency Exchanges

        Cash-intensive businesses may include currency exchanges as legitimate providers of services. Currency exchanges, however, can also be an attractive vehicle that illicit actors seek to exploit to enter the financial system and transfer their funds. According to the FATF, the simplicity and certainty of currency exchanges transactions and the anonymity and portability of cash make them attractive to money laundering and the financing of terrorism and illegal organisations.5 Once the money has been exchanged, it is difficult to trace its origin. There are two different ways to perform a currency exchange: (1) the use of cash to exchange and transfer the funds; or (2) the use of the internet to perform the currency exchange and transfer the funds to a bank account.

         Potential Risk Indicators:
          oSignificant and/or frequent local or foreign currency exchanges.
          oOpening of foreign currency accounts with no apparent business or economic purpose.
          oCustomers who know little about or are reluctant to disclose details about the payee, or customers or parties with no apparent ties to the destination country.
          oSuspicion that the customer is acting on behalf of a third party but not disclosing it.
          oTransactions involving charities and other non-profit organizations, which are not properly licensed or registered. It is reminded that when opening any accounts for non-profit organisations, LFIs must obtain an original signed letter from the Ministry of Community Development for opening accounts to collect donations and an authorization from the UAE Red Crescent for conducting financial transfers out of the UAE through some of these accounts.
          oCustomers who use false identification or offer different identifications on separate ccasions.
          oCustomers who receive transfers in seasonal patterns or transactions in a pattern consistent with criminal proceeds.
         

        5 FATF “Money Laundering through Money Remittance and Currency Exchange Providers” (June 2010), available at: https://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/ML%20through%20Remittance%20and%20Currency%20Exchange%20Providers.pdf