Full transcript of “DUBAI Unshackled From Money Laundering Restrictions”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:06 Hello team. Welcome to another video cast podcast of the your two favorite fat brokers. Your two fat brokers. Your favorite two fat brokers. Uh I am Barney from Dubai. I'm Ben from Abu Dhabi. Ben's going to take the lead on this one cuz it's super boring. Um we have recently come off the European list. The UAE, not you and I. They can see us from space. so far. Um, we're on the Great Wall of China. Yeah, I was going to say if we're on the Great Wall of China, all the satellites are confused. Um, so what does it mean for the UAE economy to have been removed from the European watch list, the money launder the anti-moneyaundering watch list specifically. Uh, so it's obviously
0:52 great news. We were removed from the fataf watch list which as you quite correctly pointed out yeah sounds like something we call ourselves me a name I call myself um in February last year and we got a reassessment uh just recently which I think you know keeps the UAE in the green zone. Uh but the European uh union watch list is a separate watch list where they want to keep an eye on on countries who are you possibly not complying with anti-moneylaundering regulations as uh carefully as they should. They actually added Monaco onto their watch list. Monaco was off. Now Monaco is everyone in Monaco is legit. There's no weird money in Monaco. Yeah. That's why they have those yachts, right? To keep all the clean money on.
1:37 Exactly. Yeah. And and if they need to get away from all bad money quickly. Yeah. Exactly. Uh so yeah, Monaco has been added on their on their watch list. UAE is off. So another great uh example of yeah, UAE and the Central Bank of the UAE uh cracking down on money launder and money laundering being more transparent. Hopefully finding more real estate companies um like they did you back in 2024. Absolutely deserved. Can happen to nicer people. Now I have to justify this. Yeah, I mean just just for people out there, pretty much every every real estate company in Dubai was physically audited, right? Uh 2023. I don't know the numbers. No, in fact, I
2:23 know it's not that's not true. Okay. But a huge number. Uh not even a huge number. Oh, really? You got selected? We Yeah, we were. Okay. We were selected. And if I may go on record, you should go on record. Yeah, we were we had done everything right. We had not done our self I think it was the self- assessment forms. We're going back three years, four years. Uh I think it was the self- assessment forms. So we've done our ML, done our KYC. We hadn't done our self assessment form. Okay. Which we would thought was optional but obviously when it happened, but we've been doing it from since 2019 and I know 2018. Yeah. But I know that we were in the minority. Yes, I'm sure. And actually that so the the laws have come out much stricter in
3:09 Abu Dhabi since about 20 2023 and you know I was you know as shocked as everyone else to find out wow all of this stuff you've got to do and so we you know and we spoke to some of the biggest when we were being audited we and we did get a fine we appealed it it was quashed all but by a few hundred thousand dirhams um which we paid happily um but we were speaking to some of well in fact the biggest real estate companies in Dubai and they hadn't been doing anything. We've been doing it from 2018 and they were like what really? So yeah, we have done a we have done a podcast on this I think uh back in the day in on on anti-moneyaundering but um bears repeating again. Um obviously when people open bank accounts
3:56 they expect you know the bank to ask you know where uh salary certificate, proof of address, obviously your passport, visa, emirates ID, they want to know who you are and where your money has come from. But people are still they still get a bit funny about that in in Dubai when you when you ask them for that kind of information. They used to I mean I think now it's just part of life. People understand that it's it's something that needs to be done. Um especially when I mean to be honest we get forms that our clients need to fill out and there's definite push back on that still you know Dubai is a place where people enjoy their privacy um and when you shove a form under their nose and go you need to sign that and it's about where all your money's come from a lot of them are like come on man you know yeah when you ask
4:41 someone how much do you earn a year people don't mind telling their bank right I mean the bank's like a financial institution and your salary probably goes in there anyway But when like you know some snotty nosn nosed little you know irk from from the UK who's like 24 and has just sold you an apartment in motor city where money how much do you earn? Yeah, how much do you what's your salary? Yeah, where's your money come from? You're like I don't want to tell you and and nothing to do with you. It's a natural which is the weird thing right because here KYC and AML is put on the real estate agent whereas everywhere else in the world is put on a legal entity solicitors in the UK lawyers in the US but only in the UAE is it the onus is put on the real estate agent/ company to do that KYC and AML
5:27 did you know developers are not obligated to do it I did know that yes yeah so a developer I alil whoever is not obligated by law to do anti-moneyaundering But you as a master broker. Yeah. You as a master. I was speaking to Stan from uh Elaine Holdings when you guys were doing um Mhm. Uh Mango Mangrove. Mangrove Village. Mangrove Village. Well remembered. Um biggest deal of my life. Um incidentally he said you did a very good job. Oh stop. And he watches this so he he'll enjoy that. Um but he was he was obviously said that you guys had to do all your all the KYC and AML for them. Yeah. But I mean we're we're set up to do the master brokerage. Yeah. So we were the master broker. We're set up
6:12 to do that. But but it is quite unusual and actually um we we had some training on anti-money laundering recently and the guy giving giving the the talk said there's actually quite a lot of push from the government to make to make developers use brokers more in their sales because the obligation you know the broker has the obligation to do this AML. If a client goes directly to a developer now developers don't take cash anymore. Well, hope hope they don't, but you know, there's no there's no legal obligation on them to do the AL. Most will anyway. Most developers, you know, ALD is a great example. Best practice that they do their AML, you know, and and they're very strict about it and they don't sell to people, you know, who who don't pass. But I'm sure there are some, you know, smaller developers who don't ask any questions. So, we have
7:00 digressed as we tend to do. Coming off the the watch list and obviously we we had a chat before the camera started rolling. Um, coming off the watch list and a strength a weakening dollar. The durham is pegged to the dollar for those that don't know. Um, suddenly makes the UAE super duper attractive. Even more attractive than it was before. It's like finding out a beautiful lady mid 90s Cindy Crawford that attractive. Yeah. But yeah, even damn. Yeah. Yeah. So, obviously I think for well, particularly let's say institutional investors um looking where to put money, you know, they're not going to look at somewhere where, you know, where they where it's perceived as being a bit dodgy and perhaps, you know, that that's that's something that Dubai and the UAE
7:48 have, I think, cleared up about the UAE now. You know, we're not we're not this haven for, you know, dodgy money. We are a respectable you know country with strong institutions where if you're an institutional investor and you want to come and you want to develop or you want to buy or whatever that might be you know we are we are a safe safe place to come and case in point I mean obviously Abu Dhabi is making a huge drive for hedge fund business mahusid put it on our family WhatsApp chat a huge drive what is it $4.5 trillion business the hedge fund business a year uh didn't see that but yeah it's it's up 30% % since last year assets under management but almost so we have we have a Google alert for like new businesses opening up in Abu Dhabi and it's all blooming hedge funds every week you know
8:33 one or two you know new hedge funds opening up family offices uh I think JP Morgan are adding 100 people you know to Abu Dhabi to you know to to deal with this UBS as well you know the big banks so you know obviously it's much more attractive for them to come and work somewhere where uh you know there's no hint of uh hint of impropriety um in the hedge funds themselves of course well I mean that that goes without saying but yeah no hint of impropriety in let's say the institutions of the UAE that those institutions are doing a great job in terms of you know I started watching billions last night it's good I've seen it it's it's a bit chewy it's quite a bit of getting into speaking of like wonky head hedge funds
9:19 I mean yeah it's a lot chat First scene's quite harrowing. 50,000 Americans here. Americans are moving over. But Americans don't don't move for the same reason anyone else does because they're still taxed in the US. Unless you give up your American citizenship, you still get taxed. So there's no You want to give up your American citizenship, they tax you 10 years in advance. They're like, "Oh, this is what you would have owed us for 10 years." No, they audit you for 10 years and like in detail to find out if there's any tax that you didn't pay, they will, you
10:06 know, they they they forward engineer it and go, "That's what you would have paid us in the next 10 years. You pay that, you can give up your citizenship." Do they look it up? Maybe. Well, I met a guy who gave up his US citizenship once, and he said in in the year that he gave it up, only another hundred people gave up their US citizenship. It's very rare. And and the US takes it very personally. He's like, he was like, they made it really, really hard for everyone because obviously Americans believe more fervently, I think maybe even the French, that their country is the best country in the world, home of the brave, land of the free, just like Scotland. and and what why would you ever you know imagine of you know you'd want to give up that citizenship you know people are flooding across the border to try and get it so they take it very personally
10:52 yeah I mean you're comparing Mexico to the USA and Mexico is a lovely place I'm not even going to go down that that rabbit hole please look I mean there's obviously a reason why I mean you know people don't give up citizenships lightly I often wonder why people want American passports, you know. Well, aren't you also I mean, you're thinking about getting Irish citizenship in the process, which we Oh, okay. Which which we we're entitled to through our grandfather. Our grandfather, the Irish squatty. Yes. Yeah. But that would be an addition to your British citizenship. Uh I don't know. If you if you had to give up the British citizenship to get Irish, would you do it? That on an emotional basis? Yeah.
11:40 Really? But you still consider yourself to be British English. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. But I think the I think the dollar the dollar point is not not really Americans coming over here. But obviously the dollar is um you know the the um the currency against which everything is pegged and a huge amount of currencies particularly in the Gulf are pegged against the dollar. And um and a weakened dollar means that things in the UAE are cheaper to the outside world, including real estate. So, you know, this um coming off the European watch list and a cheaper dollar should mean, you know, Sydney Crawford in the '90s that people see our real estate market as even more attractive than it was before. Yeah, maybe it was Meg Ryan
12:26 before, something like that. Also, very Oh, bird on a wire. Well, good lord. very old and yeah should be even more money flooding in not just because of Disney uh flooding into the UA hedge funds and hedge funds. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, obviously hedge funds bring one of the one of the common complaints or concerns about the UA is how expensive it is to live here. Um but if you are I mean I guess you know once you move here and you start earning the dirham your strength of the dollar versus the euro versus the pound argument goes out the window. But what it does mean is any money that you're bringing here with you goes that much further. Well, I mean it does actually cause a problem for inflation in the UAE because the amount of stuff we import. So a weaker dollar means the things that we import be more
13:11 expensive. So the cost of living in the UAE will go up as a result. Exciting. Can't wait for that. Yeah, you'll uh you'll see it here first. Price of mangoes. Look out. All right, guys. I think we can hit that one on the head. Uh I'm Barney from Dubai. Thank you. Oh from Hang on. Oh, before we leave, it has come to our attention that 80% of you rat bags do not follow us, yet you consume our information like rabbit little subscribe. Sorry. Like rabbit little truffle snufflers. Um guys, if you want to continue watching, we would really appreciate you subscribing, hitting the bell, liking, leave a comment. Leave a comment even. What do
13:56 you want us to talk about? Leave a comment. Um, but anyway, thanks for for watching. I'm Bonnie from Dubai. I'm Ben from Abu. We'll see you again. Bye. [Music]
