The Dubai International Financial Centre-based bank, which only launched in May 2011, was fined AED183,000 ($50,000, £31,000) after the Dubai Financial Services Authority investigated the manner in which it was providing custody to six funds in 2012.
The bank was also ordered not to provide any custodial services until it had implemented a number of remedial measures.
According to the DFSA, UIB did not maintain adequate systems and controls and had corporate governance deficiencies which prevented it from acting the best interests of the company.
Furthermore, for one of its funds, UIB had failed to provide any custodian services even though it was contracted to do so and was identified as the custodian in the fund’s offering memorandum – worse, said the DFSA UIB was aware of it but did not notify the regulator until nine months later.