Federal Decree-Law No. 30 of 2024 · UAE Federal
Establishes a national Know Your Client digital platform, run by a company whose board is chaired by an assistant Central Bank governor and regulated by the Central Bank, to collect, analyse and share client-verification data from financial institutions, government bodies and private companies and to issue KYC reports to authorised users with the client's consent.
Federal Decree-Law No. 30 of 2024 creates the legal basis for a national Know Your Client digital platform: a shared repository of client-verification data, built and run by a federally established company under Central Bank regulation, that issues KYC reports to authorised users with the client's prior consent. It was issued on 1 October 2024 and, by Article 20, came into force on its publication in the Official Gazette; the portal records 14 October 2024. Article 19 repeals conflicting provisions. It contains no transitional rules.
Article 1 defines the parties: a Provider supplies data to the Platform; a Client is a person who consents to a KYC report on themselves; a User is a body entitled to obtain such a report; Client Approval is prior approval given in writing, digitally or by any other legally acceptable means. Article 2 states the objectives, from identity verification and regulatory compliance to information-sharing against financial crime, and Article 3 applies the law to the Company, Providers, Clients, Users and any other party dealing with KYC data under the Executive Regulations.
Articles 4 to 9 establish the operator. The Company has legal personality and is governed by the Commercial Companies Law except where this Decree-Law provides otherwise; its board has 7 to 11 members chaired by an assistant to the Central Bank Governor; the Central Bank drafts its articles with the Ministry and the Cabinet issues them. The Company builds and operates the Platform, issues KYC reports and develops risk-assessment tools (Article 5); must keep KYC data confidential, protect it and report violations to the Central Bank (Article 6); is not liable for Provider errors unless negligent, with a correction route for clients (Article 7); signs data-exchange and confidentiality agreements with Providers, who supply data at no cost (Article 8); and may not use, trade or share KYC data for any other purpose (Article 9).
Article 10 is the consent rule: a User must obtain the Client's approval before requesting a KYC report, with a narrow exception where a User owed a debt obtains an order from the urgent-matters judge. Article 11 makes KYC data confidential and limits disclosure to the client's approval, that of heirs, a legal representative or an authorised agent, or a request from the judicial authorities. Article 12 gives the Central Bank supervisory powers over the Company and the codes of conduct for Providers and Users; Article 16 requires Executive Regulations issued by the Cabinet; Article 17 has the Central Bank Board set the Company's charges to Users.
Article 14 makes unauthorised disclosure, obtaining a report without approval or by fraud, breach of confidentiality and knowingly supplying false data criminal offences punishable by imprisonment of at least 2 years and/or a fine of at least AED 50,000, aggravated for public employees and Company staff; Article 15 leaves administrative penalties to a Cabinet regulation. Status: in force.
The Platform company, the financial institutions, government bodies and other Providers that supply client data, the banks and other authorised Users that request KYC reports, the individuals and companies who are the subject of those reports, and the Central Bank as regulator; indirectly, every business opening or maintaining a UAE bank account.
English official text in 20 articles. Open the full text or jump to a provision:
| Article 1 | Definitions of Provider, Client, User, KYC Data, KYC Report and Client Approval, the last being prior approval given in writing, digitally or by any other legally acceptable means. |
| Article 4 | Establishes a company with legal personality to develop and run the Platform, governed by the Commercial Companies Law save as provided; a board of 7 to 11 members chaired by an assistant Central Bank Governor; articles drafted by the Central Bank with the Ministry and issued by the Cabinet. |
| Article 6 | The Company must keep KYC data confidential, use modern processing systems, protect data from loss or unauthorised access, comply with permitted uses and Central Bank rules, and report violations to the Central Bank. |
| Article 8 | The Company signs data-exchange and confidentiality agreements with Providers, who must supply requested data at no cost; the Regulations define which client data Providers may supply. |
| Article 10 | A User must obtain the Client's approval before requesting a KYC report; the only exception is a User owed a debt who obtains an order from the urgent-matters judge. |
| Article 11 | KYC data is confidential; disclosure to a User requires the client's approval, or that of heirs, a legal representative or authorised agent, or a request from the competent judicial authorities. |
| Article 12 | The Central Bank supervises the Company, sets its operating controls, issues codes of conduct for Providers and Users, specifies the data the Company may request and issues binding instructions. |
| Article 14 | Unauthorised disclosure, obtaining a report without approval or by fraud, breach of confidentiality and knowingly supplying false data: imprisonment of at least 2 years and/or a fine of at least AED 50,000, aggravated for public employees and Company staff. |
| Article 20 | Published in the Official Gazette and in force from the date of publication. |
Imprisonment of not less than 2 years and/or a fine of not less than AED 50,000 for unauthorised disclosure of KYC data, obtaining a report without client approval or by fraud or false information, breach of confidentiality, or knowingly supplying false data to the Company; aggravated where the offender is a public employee or Company staff. Administrative fines are left to a Cabinet regulation.
Bank onboarding is the slowest step in most of our formations, and this law is the reason the process is changing. As the Platform is populated, the data a bank sees about our clients will come from a shared record rather than only from the file we submit, so what we file with the licensing authority, the UBO register and the first bank must be consistent, because inconsistencies will now follow the client from one institution to the next. We prepare every onboarding file on that basis and keep copies of the identity, address and ownership documents we have given so that a correction request under Article 7 can be evidenced. We also tell clients that a bank cannot pull their report without their consent under Article 10, and we build the consent into the account-opening pack rather than leave it to a branch form. For our own work as a DNFBP the Platform does not replace our customer due diligence; it supplements it.
| Cites | Central Bank Law 2018 (repealed) · AML Law 2018 (repealed) · Commercial Companies Law · Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) · Financial Free Zones Law |
“Cites” and “Cited by” are built automatically from references in the full texts held in this library; they cover only instruments in the library.
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