Overview
- FinCEN on Aug. 28 proposed a Section 311 rule that would designate Banque Misr’s five UAE branches as a primary money‑laundering concern and bar US banks from maintaining correspondent accounts with them.
- The Treasury said the branches processed about $1.8 billion in transactions for 103 companies between January 2024 and June 2026 that it links to Iranian shadow‑banking networks.
- The Central Bank of the UAE ordered a special, urgent forensic review focused on the transactions named by US authorities and said it is studying options for the bank’s status in the UAE.
- The Central Bank of Egypt and the CBUAE issued a coordinated statement that the UAE branches are conducting business as usual and that regulators are cooperating while the review and the 30‑day comment period proceed.
- The action is part of the Treasury’s wider Operation Economic Outcast campaign and, if finalized, could disrupt dollar clearing for the branches, raise diplomatic strains for Egypt and the UAE, and prompt wider scrutiny of regional correspondent banking links.