Designated non-financial businesses and professions

DNFBP: meaning and duties in the UAE

DNFBP stands for designated non-financial businesses and professions: businesses outside the financial sector that the UAE's anti-money-laundering law reaches. Cabinet Resolution No. 134 of 2025 names them: real estate brokers and agents, dealers in precious metals and stones, lawyers, notaries and independent accountants, company and trust service providers, and commercial gaming operators. A DNFBP carries the same core duties as a bank, and one of them is sanctions screening, which is the part OFACScreen does.

Screen a customer

Free scored matches against the UN list, OFAC and the other default lists. The UAE Local Terrorist List is an optional list in an account.

Screening against 14 lists

Built on official government sanctions data

Screening lists: 14
Sanctioned entities: 50,000+
List updates: Daily
Free searches: 25/day

Who is a DNFBP in the UAE

Real estate brokers and agents

When they conclude transactions or settlements on behalf of a customer for the purchase or sale of real estate. Supervised by the Ministry of Economy and Tourism. See AML for real estate brokers.

Dealers in precious metals and stones

Gold, jewellery and diamond traders, when they carry out a single cash transaction, or several that appear linked, of AED 55,000 or more. Supervised by the Ministry of Economy and Tourism. See AML for gold dealers.

Lawyers, notaries and independent accountants

Lawyers, notaries, other independent legal professionals and independent accountants, when they prepare, conduct or execute financial transactions for a customer: buying and selling real estate, managing the customer's funds or accounts, organising contributions to a company, or setting up, running or buying and selling companies and legal arrangements. The Ministry of Justice supervises law firms and legal professionals; the Ministry of Economy and Tourism supervises accountants and auditors.

Company and trust service providers

Firms that act as agent in incorporating a company, act or arrange for someone to act as director, secretary, partner or nominee shareholder, provide a registered office or address, or act as trustee of an express trust. Supervised by the Ministry of Economy and Tourism.

Commercial gaming operators

Including gaming on board vessels, for a single financial transaction, or several that appear linked, of AED 11,000 or more. A transaction that only involves gaming chips does not count.

Firms in the financial free zones

DNFBPs in the DIFC are supervised by the Dubai Financial Services Authority, and those in the ADGM by its Financial Services Regulatory Authority.

What a DNFBP in the UAE has to do

1
Assess your risk and appoint a compliance officer

Identify, assess and document your money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing risks, keep the assessment current for your supervisor, and appoint a compliance officer at management level who is independent in decision-making.
2
Know the customer

Apply customer due diligence at the start of every business relationship, whenever you suspect a crime and whenever you doubt the customer data you hold. Identify the beneficial owners and anyone acting for the customer, and keep the records for not less than five years.
3
Screen against the sanctions lists

Screen customers, potential customers, beneficial owners and the parties to a transaction against the UAE Local Terrorist List and the UN Security Council list before dealing with them and whenever the lists change, and freeze without delay on a match. See EOCN and TFS screening.
4
Register on goAML and report

Register with the Financial Intelligence Unit's goAML platform, then file suspicious transaction reports, sanctions match reports (CNMR and PNMR) and the sector reports your business owes through it. See goAML registration.

Where OFACScreen fits

OFACScreen does the sanctions screening step. Search a customer by name, in Latin letters or Arabic, and see each possible match with its list and score. In an account, add the UAE Local Terrorist List to your searches, screen a customer file as a CSV, and save names to be re-screened every day.

It does not cover customer due diligence, PEP checks, risk assessment or goAML reporting. Those stay with your compliance officer and the tools your supervisor accepts.

Questions

A DNFBP is a business or profession outside the financial sector that anti-money-laundering law still reaches, because criminals can use it to move or hide money. The term comes from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and the UAE's law uses it the same way.

Designated non-financial businesses and professions. In the singular, a designated non-financial business or profession.

Federal Decree-Law No. 10 of 2025 on anti-money laundering, combating the financing of terrorism and proliferation financing, which repealed Federal Decree-Law No. 20 of 2018. Article 3 of its executive regulations, Cabinet Resolution No. 134 of 2025, lists the businesses that count. The duty to screen and freeze comes from Cabinet Decision No. 74 of 2020.

Yes. Article 21 of Cabinet Decision No. 74 of 2020 puts the same targeted financial sanctions duties on DNFBPs as on financial institutions: subscribe to the EOCN's notifications, screen customers, potential customers, beneficial owners and transaction parties against the UAE Local Terrorist List and the UN list, freeze without delay on a match and notify the supervisor. The 2025 law adds that reporting entities implement the EOCN's instructions forthwith.

The Ministry of Economy and Tourism supervises real estate agents and brokers, dealers in precious metals and stones, independent accountants and auditors, and trust and company service providers on the mainland and in the commercial free zones. The Ministry of Justice supervises law firms and other legal professionals. In the DIFC the supervisor is the DFSA, and in the ADGM the FSRA.

No. OFACScreen screens names against sanctions and export-control lists. It does not hold lists of politically exposed persons or news, so a DNFBP that needs PEP checks needs another source for them.

Screen your customers as a DNFBP

The search is free and needs no signup. In an account, add the UAE Local Terrorist List to your searches. Plans from $49/month re-screen saved names daily, with a 14-day trial.

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