Who has to register
goAML is the UAE's official portal for filing suspicious transaction and activity reports to the UAE Financial Intelligence Unit. Registration is mandatory for financial institutions and for Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs) — a category that covers real estate brokers and developers, dealers in precious metals and stones, auditors, and company service providers, among others.
If your business falls into one of these categories and operates in the UAE, registration is not optional, and supervisors have fined firms for failing to register and for gaps in their wider AML programmes.
What registration involves
Registration runs in two stages. First, the business registers in the goAML Service Access Control Manager (SACM) system to obtain credentials; then it completes the entity profile on the goAML portal itself, nominating a compliance officer and providing the company's licence and ownership details.
The compliance officer named in the registration should be the person genuinely responsible for the AML programme — supervisors expect the named officer to know the business's reporting obligations and to be reachable.
Registration is the start, not the finish
Being registered only gives you the ability to file reports. A defensible AML programme also needs a documented risk assessment, customer due diligence procedures, sanctions and PEP screening of customers and counterparties, staff training, and record-keeping — the areas examiners actually test.
This is where tooling earns its keep: screening customers against sanctions, PEP and adverse-media data at onboarding, and monitoring them afterwards, turns a manual obligation into a repeatable workflow with an audit trail.
How we help
From Dubai, ICG MECOS helps DNFBPs stand up the practical side of their programme — screening workflows on ComplianceSuite powered by LexisNexis Risk Solutions data, KYC and KYB file preparation, and case records built for regulator-facing files. Talk to our team if you are registering on goAML and want the surrounding compliance workflow in place.
This article is general information from the ICG MECOS team, not legal advice. For guidance on your specific situation, speak to a qualified adviser or your regulator.