Executive Office for Control and Non-Proliferation

EOCN and targeted financial sanctions

The EOCN, the UAE's Executive Office for Control and Non-Proliferation, is the authority the AML law names for targeted financial sanctions (TFS). Under Cabinet Decision No. 74 of 2020 every reporting entity subscribes to its notifications, screens customers against the UAE Local Terrorist List and the UN Security Council Consolidated List, freezes without delay on a confirmed match and reports to the EOCN through goAML. OFACScreen is the screening step in that process.

Screen a name

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

Targeted financial sanctions in the UAE

The legal basis

Cabinet Decision No. 74 of 2020 sets the obligations for implementing TFS, and its Article 21 puts them on financial institutions and DNFBPs. Federal Decree-Law No. 10 of 2025 requires reporting entities to implement the EOCN's instructions forthwith, and makes violating them a crime punishable by imprisonment and a fine of not less than AED 20,000, or either.

Which lists

The UAE Local Terrorist List, issued by the Cabinet, and the UN Security Council Consolidated List. The EOCN's own FAQ says Cabinet Decision No. 74 covers those and no other sanctions list. See what the UAE Local Terrorist List contains.

Without delay

Cabinet Decision No. 74 defines it as within 24 hours of the listing decision by the Security Council, its sanctions committee or the Cabinet. That is why screening has to run the moment a list changes, not only at onboarding.

Who the freeze reaches

The designated person, any entity it owns or controls, directly or indirectly, and anyone acting on its behalf or at its direction. An entity counts as owned when a designated person holds more than 50 percent of it or a controlling interest, and the EOCN expects a freeze on a minority holding too where there is evidence of control.

The four TFS obligations, step by step

1
Register for notifications

Subscribe to the Notification Alert System on the EOCN's website, uaeiec.gov.ae. The EOCN then emails you when the UAE Local Terrorist List or the UN lists change. The EOCN also tells reporting entities to watch the UN's own press releases.
2
Screen

On every update to the lists, immediately, so a freeze can follow within 24 hours; before onboarding a new customer; at periodic KYC reviews or when the customer's ownership or business changes; and before processing a transaction for a counterparty. The screening covers customers, potential customers, beneficial owners and the parties to a transaction.
3
Act on the result

A confirmed match on an existing customer: freeze all funds and assets within 24 hours, without telling the customer, and provide no further funds or services. A confirmed match on a prospective customer: reject the transaction. A partial match you cannot confirm or rule out: suspend or reject the transaction. A false positive, where the identifiers prove it is not the listed person: no report, but keep your internal record of the check.
4
Report

File a Confirmed Name Match Report (CNMR) within five business days of the freeze, or a Partial Name Match Report (PNMR) within five business days of the suspension or rejection, to the EOCN and your supervisory authority through goAML. A business that is not a financial institution, DNFBP or VASP has no goAML account and emails the EOCN at [email protected] within the same five business days. See goAML registration.

After the freeze

A TFS freeze has no time limit. It stays until the person is delisted, and on delisting the measures are lifted at once, with no approval needed from the EOCN or the supervisor unless a competent authority has a separate freeze order on the same person. A freezing cancellation decision reaches you through goAML. Interest, profits and payments due under contracts made before the freeze may still be added to a frozen account, provided they are frozen too.

Over weekends and public holidays the obligation does not pause: a reporting entity needs procedures that stop frozen assets being accessed, and if it does no business on those days the screening duty starts from the first minute business resumes. Anyone who freezes or refuses a service in good faith under Cabinet Decision No. 74 is exempt from liability for doing so.

Where OFACScreen fits

An EOCN notification tells you a list has changed. You still have to check your customers against it. In an account, add the UAE Local Terrorist List to your searches, and OFACScreen checks names against it and the UN list together, with fuzzy matching for transliterated names. On a plan, saved names are re-screened every day, with an email when one of them matches, and every search is logged with the lists it covered.

OFACScreen does not freeze funds, does not file anything for you and is not connected to goAML or the EOCN. Confirming a match against the date of birth, nationality and document numbers, the freeze and the report are your compliance officer's steps.

Questions

The Executive Office for Control and Non-Proliferation, which the 2025 AML law defines as the office concerned with implementing targeted financial sanctions in the UAE. It publishes the UAE Local Terrorist List, links the UN lists the UAE applies, runs the Notification Alert System, issues the Guidance on Targeted Financial Sanctions and receives CNMR and PNMR reports. Its website is uaeiec.gov.ae.

Through the Notification Alert System on the EOCN's website, uaeiec.gov.ae, under Sanctions List and Subscription on its targeted financial sanctions page. The form takes the company name in Arabic and English, the type of business and an email address, and the EOCN then emails you when the UAE Local Terrorist List or the UN lists change. Annex I of its Guidance on Targeted Financial Sanctions walks through the steps.

No. Subscribing to the EOCN's Notification Alert System gets you the list updates. Registering on goAML, the UAE Financial Intelligence Unit's platform, is what lets you file a CNMR or PNMR and suspicious transaction reports. Financial institutions, DNFBPs and VASPs need both.

It regulates the UAE's terrorist lists and the application of UN Security Council sanctions on terrorism, terrorist financing and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Its Article 21 requires financial institutions and DNFBPs to register for the EOCN's notifications, screen their customers, potential customers, beneficial owners and transaction parties, freeze without delay and without prior notice on a match, lift a freeze without delay when told to, notify their supervisor at once, and keep staff from tipping off the customer. Without delay means within 24 hours of the listing decision.

No. If the identifiers on the list entry, such as date of birth, nationality and document numbers, show the match is not the listed person, the EOCN requires no report, only that you keep internal documentation of the check. A match you cannot confirm or rule out is a partial match and does need a PNMR.

No. OFACScreen finds possible matches against the lists and keeps a record of each search. Deciding whether a match is real, freezing and filing the CNMR or PNMR in goAML are steps your compliance officer takes.

Screen against both TFS lists

In an account, add the UAE Local Terrorist List to your searches and saved names. Plans from $49/month re-screen saved names daily, with a 14-day trial.

Start the 14-day trial Screen free