UAE Pass is the first national digital identity of the United Arab Emirates, launched at GITEX 2018 as a collaboration between Digital Dubai, the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) and Abu Dhabi's Department of Government Enablement. Citizens and residents register with their Emirates ID and verify their account by face recognition in the app, which the UAE Government portal says takes a few minutes without a visit to a service centre; visitors register with a passport. A verified account gives access to federal and local government services and to private services that have connected, and supports a digital signature.
When a business requests verification, the individual approves the request in the UAE Pass app and the identity data held by the scheme is returned to the business: the Emirates ID number, the name in English and Arabic, nationality and date of birth. A basic account, created without a verified Emirates ID, gives limited access and is not used for identity verification.
Why it matters for KYC
The UAE's AML law and the Central Bank's and Securities and Commodities Authority's rules require identity verified from reliable and independent sources, and UAE Pass is the government's own confirmation. It avoids the Emirates ID scan and the manual check that a non-face-to-face relationship would otherwise need.
How Fill Easy relates to it
UAE Pass verification is one of the four schemes behind GovVerify. A Hong Kong or Singapore firm with customers in the Emirates verifies them through the same API, consent flow and signed audit record as iAM Smart and Singpass. Our UAE KYC and AML page covers the regulators' requirements.