In an era of increasingly sophisticated financial crimes that transcend national borders, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom have reaffirmed and strengthened their commitment to uprooting illicit finance. Over a two-day strategic dialogue, held in London on 2–3 September 2025, officials from both countries met to share intelligence, align regulatory frameworks, and enhance joint operational capacity. The meeting marks another significant milestone in an evolving partnership dedicated to securing the international financial system.
Key Players and Areas of Engagement
On the UAE side, the visit was led by Hamid AlZaabi, who serves as both Secretary-General and Vice-Chair of the UAE’s National Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism and Illegal Organisations Committee (NAMLCFTC). His delegation included senior officials from multiple agencies like Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, UAE Customs, Financial Intelligence Units and other regulatory, supervisory, and law-enforcement bodies
Similarly, the UK was represented by Dan Jarvis MP, Minister of State for Security. The UK delegation comprised individuals from His Majesty’s Treasury, The Home Office, The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Crown Prosecution Service, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, National Economic Crime Centre, UK Gambling Commission, Financial Intelligence Unit and other agencies engaged in regulatory, judicial, and law-enforcement work
These meetings traversed multiple sectors, such as financial supervision, law enforcement, customs, and judicial prosecution, all relevant to identifying, investigating, prosecuting, and disrupting illicit financial flows.
Points of Discussion
The discussions were wide-ranging but centred majorly on shared priorities in combating financial crime. Principal issues included:
- Enhancing bilateral cooperation in regulatory and supervisory mechanisms to combat abuse of financial systems.
- Improving judicial and law-enforcement partnership, especially across borders, to track and prosecute those involved in money laundering, terrorist financing, and organised criminality.
- Exchanging best practices and operational intelligence to bolster capacity on both sides.
- Supporting legal and regulatory reforms in areas needing strengthening, particularly in sectors susceptible to illicit flows
Additionally, there was emphasised intent to ensure these partnerships support legitimate trade and commerce, so as not to hinder legal economic activity while they combat illicit ones.
The Importance of this Dialogue
The threat of illicit finance
Financial crime, whether money laundering, terrorist financing, or other organised criminal activity, is global by nature. Criminal networks leverage international financial systems to launder proceeds, move funds, and evade detection. When unchecked, these actions:
- Undermine the integrity of financial and legal systems.
- Destroy economic development by distorting markets and enabling corruption.
- Compromise national and regional security by funding terrorist or extremist activities.
- Erode public trust in governance institutions.
In response, effectively combating illicit finance increasingly requires not only strong domestic laws and enforcement, but also reliable cross-border collaboration and shared intelligence.
Strategic importance of the UAE-UK partnership
The UK has long been a global financial hub with a highly sophisticated regulatory framework. The UAE has become a significant international financial centre with rapidly evolving laws and institutions. Both face common risks: abuse of complex corporate structures, misuse of financial services for illicit ends, vulnerabilities in trade, customs, and cross-border monetary flows.
This dialogue highlights that both governments view cooperation as essential:
- To ensure that criminals cannot exploit differences in legal and regulatory systems.
- To facilitate swift information sharing and joint action.
- To align their strategies so that efforts are mutually reinforcing rather than disjointed.
Moreover, these discussions help harmonise rules and enforcement practices so that criminals cannot “play one country off another.”
Outcomes
Productive deliberations
Hamid AlZaabi described the dialogue as productive: it advanced operational effectiveness and reaffirmed both nations’ commitment to tackling financial crime without hindering legitimate trade.
Similarly, Dan Jarvis MP said the engagement with the UAE represented a major step forward in joint efforts to disrupt criminal networks dependent on illicit finance, while highlighting the safety and wellbeing of communities.
Areas of enhanced partnership
Though not all details of future agreements were published, several concrete areas for deepened collaboration emerged:
- Regulatory and Supervisory Cooperation
- Law Enforcement & Judicial Coordination
- Customs & Border Controls
- Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs)
- Private Sector Engagement
- International Fora and Best Practice Platforms
Challenges & Considerations
While the dialogue marks progress, it also underscores the manifold challenges that both nations, and indeed the global community, must navigate:
- Complexity of Illicit Networks
- Information Sensitivity and Data Sharing
- Balancing Regulation with Trade
- Capacity Gaps
- Judicial Diversity
Broader Context
UAE’s efforts so far
The UAE has, in recent years, taken multiple steps to enhance its anti-money laundering (AML) and countering financing of terrorism (CFT) frameworks. These include:
- Strengthening laws and regulations governing financial institutions and non-financial businesses.
- Improving financial intelligence capabilities.
- Cooperating in international fora to align practices and .
- Participation in global peer-review mechanisms.
By engaging in bilateral dialogues like this one with the UK, the UAE signals both its willingness to match global expectations and to partner with other nations in resisting the abuse of its financial systems.
UK’s continuing priorities
Similarly, the UK continues to emphasise:
- Robust regulation of its financial sector, including special attention to emerging risks.
- Using advanced investigative capability (e.g. via the National Economic Crime Centre).
- Engaging diplomatic, legal, regulatory, and prosecutorial tools to stamp out illicit finance.
The UK, given its historical position as a global financial centre and its regulatory depth, often serves as a hub for others to build models of cooperation or adaptation.
Implications for the Global Financial System
This UAE-UK dialogue is not just bilateral; it has broader implications:
- Signal to Criminal Networks
- Standard-setting
- Stability of Trade and Finance
- Support for Developing Nations:
The two-day UAE-UK strategic dialogue held in London in early September 2025 represents a substantive step forward in the global fight against illicit financial flows. By bringing together senior officials across law enforcement, regulation, judicial prosecution, financial intelligence, and trade oversight, the UAE and UK have demonstrated a collective resolve to strengthen the integrity of their respective systems and to interrupt the criminal and terrorist networks that exploit loopholes in finance.
While much of the detailed implementation lies ahead, the dialogue’s outcomes stronger cooperation, shared practices, private-sector engagement, and enhanced regulatory and judicial alignment, are positive and build on a foundation of mutual trust. As both nations move to operationalise the agreements reached, the real test will be in translating policy into action, in investigations, prosecutions, asset recoveries, and in ensuring illicit finance is made risky, costly, and much harder to sustain.
