Federal Decree-Law No. 10 of 2025: The New UAE AML Law and What Changed for Brokers

This guide explains the new UAE AML law in plain words: the key dates, what it replaced, what Cabinet Resolution No. 134 of 2025 adds, what changed for businesses, the penalties, and five things real estate brokers should do now.

Key dates

What the new law replaced

The new law repealed Federal Decree-Law No. 20 of 2018 (art. 41(1)), which had governed AML in the UAE for seven years. Its Executive Regulations, Cabinet Decision No. 10 of 2019, were replaced by Cabinet Resolution 134/2025.

Regulations, decisions and circulars issued under the 2018 law stay in force as long as they don’t conflict with the new law, until they are replaced (art. 41(3)). For brokers the most important of them is MoET Circular 05/2022, which created the Real Estate Activity Report (REAR) for cash and crypto deals. It still applies.

The Executive Regulations: Cabinet Resolution No. 134 of 2025

The decree-law sets out the principles and the penalties. Cabinet Resolution 134/2025 sets out the detail businesses work with day to day:

• Who is regulated (art. 3): the DNFBP list and its thresholds. Real estate brokers are covered for purchase and sale deals with no threshold, dealers in precious metals and stones for cash deals of AED 55,000 or more, and gaming operators from AED 11,000. The full list is in What is a DNFBP in the UAE.
• Risk assessment and internal controls: an enterprise-wide risk assessment, policies approved by senior management, and a risk-based approach.
• Customer due diligence: identifying customers and beneficial owners, the purpose of the relationship and ongoing monitoring, with enhanced measures for PEPs and higher-risk customers.
• Reliance on third parties (art. 20): only on a third party that is itself regulated, supervised and applies CDD and record keeping, and you remain responsible.
• The Compliance Officer (art. 22): appointed at management level, with independence in decision-making and the right competence and experience.
• Record keeping (art. 25): at least five years from the completed transaction or the end of the business relationship.

Together with MoET’s guidance, this is the rulebook a broker is inspected against.

What changed for businesses

The maximum fine stays at AED 5,000,000 and only the floor came down. The fine applies to each violation, so an inspection that finds several gaps adds them up: a missing screening record, a customer file without a source of funds and a policy that wasn’t updated are three violations. If the same violation recurs within a year of the previous fine, the supervisor can impose an increased fine, and it can publish the sanctions it imposes (art. 17).

Penalties under the new law

A supervisor that finds a violation can impose, depending on how serious it is:

• a warning;
• a fine of AED 10,000 to AED 5,000,000 per violation, which can be increased if the same violation recurs within a year;
• a ban from working in the sector concerned;
• restrictions on the powers of the directors, managers or owners responsible, including the appointment of a temporary supervisor;
• suspension of the directors or managers responsible, or a requirement to replace them;
• suspension or restriction of the activity;
• revocation of the licence.

The supervisor can also order periodic reports on how you are fixing the violation.

The company is liable too. If the offences in this table are committed on its behalf, the company itself can be fined AED 200,000 to AED 10,000,000 (art. 27(2)). The person who actually manages the business can be punished personally if it is proven that they knew of the offence and that it resulted from a breach of their duties (art. 27(5)).

Money laundering itself carries 1 to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of AED 100,000 to AED 5,000,000, or the value of the criminal property if that is higher (art. 26). The penalty is heavier where someone uses influence or authority from their position or professional activity, so a broker who knowingly helps launder money through a property deal faces the aggravated penalty. A company in whose name money laundering is committed faces a fine of AED 5,000,000 to AED 100,000,000, or the value of the criminal property if higher (art. 27(1)).

Other points brokers should know

• The FIU can stop a deal. The head of the FIU can suspend a transaction for up to 10 working days and freeze funds held by a DNFBP for up to 30 days, without prior notice (art. 5).
• Crypto is written into the law. The definition of money laundering explicitly includes acts carried out through digital systems, virtual assets and cryptographic technologies (art. 1), and dealing in virtual assets with total anonymity is a separate offence (art. 30). For brokers, any crypto payment on a freehold deal still means a REAR.
• Knowledge can be inferred. For money laundering, the prosecution doesn’t need a conviction for the underlying crime, and knowledge can be inferred from the facts (art. 2). “I didn’t know where the money came from” is a weak defence when the red flags were obvious.
• Reports stay confidential. Information on suspicious transactions is strictly confidential (art. 24), and disclosing it is the tipping-off offence above.

What it means for real estate brokers: five actions

What each obligation means day to day is in our guide to AML for real estate agents in the UAE. Start with these five:

1. Update your AML policy and procedures to cite Decree-Law 10/2025 and CR 134/2025, and have senior management approve the new version.
2. Redo or refresh your enterprise-wide risk assessment (EWRA) against the new law, the National Risk Assessment and MoET’s guidance for brokers.
3. Check your Compliance Officer: appointed at management level, with independence in decision-making. Record the appointment in writing.
4. Confirm your registrations: goAML, with the right Compliance Officer as administrator, and EOCN sanctions notifications. If you’re not registered, see goAML registration in the UAE.
5. Retrain your staff and update your KYC forms, red flag lists and record keeping. Inspectors check that the policy is followed in practice.

Banks apply the same law to your company’s own account, which is why they ask brokers how they meet their AML duties; see business bank account KYC.

Policies still written for the 2018 law? Our AML subscription for brokers includes a documentation set updated to Decree-Law 10/2025 and CR 134/2025, and we send you the new version whenever the law changes.

See what’s included and the price →

Where to read the official text

• Federal Decree-Law No. 10 of 2025, English PDF: moet.gov.ae+of+2025.pdf/977388f8-507f-a933-0863-1a9f8c5618ae)
• Cabinet Resolution No. 134 of 2025, PDF: uaefiu.gov.ae
• MoET guidance for DNFBPs: MoET’s AML page, moet.gov.ae/en/aml. The sector guidance for brokers is MoET’s Supplemental Guidance for Real Estate Agents & Brokers (REAB), March 2026.

What is a decree-law? A federal decree-law is issued by the President of the UAE and has the same force as a federal law passed through the normal legislative process. “Federal Decree-Law No. 10 of 2025” and “Federal Decree by Law No. (10) of 2025” are the same document.

This guide is general information, not legal advice.

What this means for you

The 2025 law keeps the duties brokers already had and changes how violations are counted. Three things to act on: