In application of the provisions of this Resolution, the following terms and expressions shall have the following meanings assigned to them unless the context requires otherwise:

State: United Arab Emirates

Minister: Minister of Finance

Central Bank: Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates

Governor: Governor of the Central Bank

Committee: National Committee for Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism and Illegal Organizations

Unit: Financial Intelligence Unit.

Supervisory Authority: Federal and local authorities entrusted by legislation to supervise the Financial Institutions, the designated non-financial businesses professions, Virtual Asset Service Providers and non-profit organizations or the competent authority in charge of approving the exercise of an activity or a profession if the legislation does not specify the relevant regulatory authority

Law-enforcement Authorities: Federal and local authorities entrusted under applicable legislation to conduct combat, search, investigate and collect evidences on crimes including AML/CFT crimes and financing illegal organizations.

Competent Authorities: Concerned government authorities that are in charge of implementing any provision of the Decree Law in the State.

Predicate Offence: Any act constituting a felony or misdemeanor under the applicable legislation of the State, whether committed inside or outside the State, when such act is punishable in both countries.

Money Laundering: Any of the acts mentioned in Clause (1) of Article (2) of the Decree-Law.

Financing of Terrorism: Any of the acts mentioned in Articles nos. (29 and 30) of Federal Law no. (7) of 2014 on Combating Terrorism Offences.

Illegal Organizations: Organizations whose establishment is criminalized, or which exercise a criminalized activity.

Financing Illegal Organizations: Any physical or legal action aiming at providing funding to an illegal organization, or any of its activities or its members.

Crime: Money laundering crime and related predicate offences, or financing of terrorism or illegal organizations.

Funds: Assets, regardless of the manner in which they are earned, their type or their form, whether tangible or intangible, movable or immovable, electronic, digital or encrypted, including national and foreign currencies, legal documents and instruments of whatever form, including electronic or digital forms that prove the ownership of these assets, shares or related rights and economic resources that are assets of any kind, including natural resources. As well as bank credits, cheques, payment orders, shares, securities, bonds, bills of exchange, letters of credit, and any interest, dividends or other incomes derived or resulting from these assets, and can be used to obtain any financing or goods or services.

Virtual Assets: A digital representation of the value that can be digitally traded or transferred, and can be used for payment or investment purposes, and do not include digital representations of fiat currencies, securities, or other funds.

Proceeds: Funds generated directly or indirectly from the commitment of any felony or misdemeanor including profits, benefits, and economic interests, or any similar funds converted wholly or partly into other funds.

Means: Any means used or intended to be used to commit a felony or misdemeanor.

Suspicious Transactions: Transactions related to funds for which there are reasonable grounds to believe that they are earned from any felony or misdemeanor or related to the financing of terrorism or of illegal organizations, whether committed or attempted.

Freezing or seizure: Temporary attachment over the moving, conversion, transfer, replacement or disposition of funds in any form, by an order issued by a competent authority.

Confiscation: Permanent expropriation of private funds or proceeds or instrumentalities by a judgment issued by a competent court.

Financial Institutions: Whoever conducts one or more of the financial activities or transactions in for or on behalf of a client.

Financial Intermediary: The financial institution that receives and transfers a wire transfer between the financial institution issuing the transfer and the beneficiary financial institution or another financial intermediary.

The beneficiary financial institution: the financial institution that receives a wire transfer from the financial institution issuing the transfer directly or through an financial intermediary institution, and provides the money available to the beneficiary.

Financial activities or operations: any activity or operation or more of what is stipulated in Article no. (2) of this Resolution.

Designated Nonfinancial Businesses and Professions: Whoever conducts one or more of the commercial or professional activities defined in Article no. (3) of this Resolution.

Non-Profit Organizations: Any organized group, of a continuing nature set for a temporary or permanent period, comprising natural or juridical persons or a legal arrangement not seeking profit, that collects, receives or disburses funds for charitable, religious, cultural, educational, social, communal or any other charitable activities.

Legal Arrangement: the relationship established by means of a contract concluded between two or more parties, including but not limited to trust funds or other similar arrangements.

Trust Fund: A legal relationship whereby the trustee places funds under which the trustor places the funds under the control of the trustee for the account of a beneficiary or for particular purpose , and deemed to be Funds independent of the trustee's property. The right of the trustor’s Funds remains in the name of the trustor or in the name of another person on behalf of the trustor.

Trustor: A natural or juridical person who transfers the management of his funds to a trustee under a document.

Trustee: A natural or juridical person enjoying the rights and powers granted to it by the Trustor, under which he manages, uses and disposes of the trustor’s funds in accordance with the terms imposed on him by either of them.

Client: Any person who carries out or attempts to carry out any of the activities specified in Articles nos. (2) and (3) of this Resolution with a Financial Institutions or designated non-financial businesses and professions or Virtual Asset Service Providers

Transaction: Any disposal or use of Funds or proceeds including for example: deposits, withdrawals, transfer, sale, purchase, lending, swap, mortgage, and donation.

Real Beneficiary : The natural person who owns or exercises effective ultimate control, whether directly or indirectly, over a client or the natural person on whose behalf a transaction is being conducted or a person who exercises effective ultimate control over a juridical person or legal arrangement, whether directly or through a chain of ownership, or control or other indirect means.

Virtual Asset Service Providers: Any natural or juridical person, who conducts any activity of commercial business, conducts one or more of the activities of virtual assets for the benefit or on behalf of another natural or legal person in any of the following activities:

1- Exchange between virtual assets and fiat currencies.

2- Exchange between one or more types of virtual assets.

3- Transfer of virtual assets.

4- Saving or managing virtual assets or tools that enable control of virtual assets.

5- Providing financial services or activities related to an issuer’s offer or, selling or participating in virtual assets.

Business relationship: Any ongoing business or financial relationship arising between Financial Institutions or Designated Non-Financial Business or Professions, and their client related to the activities or services they provide thereto.

Correspondent banking relationship: relationship between a correspondent financial institution and a recipient institution through a current account, or any other type of account or any other associated service therewith, including the correspondent relationship arising for securities transactions or money transfer.

Intermediary Payment Accounts: correspondent account used directly by a third party to perform transactions for its account.

Financial Group: A group of Financial Institutions consisting of a holding company or other juridical person that exercises control over the rest of the group and coordinates the functions in order to control at the level of the group and its branches and subsidiaries, in accordance with the international basic principles of financial control and the policies and procedures for AML/CFT.

Fundamental Principles of International Financial Control: Principles of the Basel Committee for Effective Banking Supervision Nos. (1, 2, 3, 5 to 9, 11 to 15, 26 and 29), the Principles of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS). (1, 3 to 11, 18, 21 to 23, 25), and the Principles of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Nos. (24, 28, 29 and 31) and Responsibilities (A, B, C, and D).

Wire Transfer: A financial transaction carried out by a financial institution itself or through an intermediary institution, on behalf of a sender, through which funds are delivered to a beneficiary in another financial institution, whether the sender and the beneficiary are the same person or others.

Fictitious Bank: A bank registered or licensed in a state that has no physical presence therein, does not belong to a regulated and supervised financial group..

Registrar: entity in charge of supervising the register of commercial names for all types of establishments registered in the State.

Due Diligence Measures: The process of identifying or verifying the information of the Client or the real Beneficiary owner, whether a natural, juridical person or a legal arrangement, and the nature of its activity, and the purpose of the business relationship, and the ownership structure, control over it for the purpose of the Decree-Law and this Resolution.

Controlled Delivery: process by which a competent authority allows the entery or transferring of illegal or suspicious funds or crime revenues to and from the State for the purpose of investigating a crime or identifying the identity of its perpetrators.

Undercover Operation: process of search and investigation conducted by one of the judicial officer by impersonating or playing a disguised or false role in order to obtain evidence or information related to the Crime.

High Risk Client: A Client who represents a risk, either in person , or through his activity, business relationship, its nature or his geographical area, such as a Clientclient from high-risk countries, or non-resident in a country for which does not have an identity card, or of a complex structure, or who carries out complex or unclear operations with an economic or legal purpose, or carries out intensive cash transactions, operations with an unknown third party, or conduct operations without direct confrontation, or any other high-risk operations specified by Financial Institutions, Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions, or the Regulatory authority.

Politically exposed persons: Natural persons who are or have been entrusted with prominent functions in the State or in any other State, such as heads of State or Government, senior politicians, high-ranking government officials, judicial or military officials, senior executives of State-owned enterprises, senior officials of political parties, and persons who are or have been entrusted with the management or any other prominent function of international organizations. The definition shall include the following:

1. The immediate family members of the politically exposed person, namely spouses, children, their spouses, and parents.
    
2. Partners known to be close to the Politically Exposed Person, namely:
    
   1. Persons having joint ownership of a juridical person, or legal arrangement or any close business relationship with the politically exposed person.
       
   2. Persons having the exclusive ownership of a single of a juridical person or legal arrangement established for the benefit of the politically exposed person.

Decree-Law: Federal Decree-Law No. (20) of 2018 on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism and Illegal Organizations, and its amendments.