The law of 29 July 2022, which entered into force on 12 August 2022, amended the Law of 12 November 2004 on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, transposing Directive 2001/97/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 December 2001 amending Council Directive 91/308/EEC on prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering (the AML Law).

Following such amendments, professionals in the scope of such legislation will need to update their AML policies and procedures, in particular regarding customer due diligence, to provide, amongst other things, for the following obligations :

  • To determine the extent of the customer due diligence requirements according to the assessment of risks relating to types of customers, countries or geographical areas and particular products, services, transactions or delivery channels;
  • To compare the information collected with that in the registers (i.e. register of beneficial owners, if available) in order to detect any erroneous data or the absence of all or part of the data or the lack of registration, amendment or deletion. Professionals shall proceed in the same way in the context of the exercise of constant vigilance of the business relationship;
  • To retain copies of the documents, data and information collected as part of the due diligence process;
  • To apply enhanced due diligence requirements where a customer or a person purporting to act on behalf of or for the customer or beneficial owner is a PEP, i.e., to:

(a) have appropriate risk management systems, including risk-based procedures, to determine if the customer, the person purporting to act on behalf of or for the customer or beneficial owner is a politically exposed person;

(b) obtain senior management approval for establishing or continuing, for existing customers, business relationships with such persons;

(c) take reasonable measures to establish the source of wealth and source of funds that are involved in the business relationship or transaction with such persons;

(d) conduct enhanced ongoing monitoring of the business relationship.

Please get in touch with our investment management team if you wish assistance.

Olivier Sciales
Chevalier & Sciales
Partner
36-38, Grand-Rue,
L1660 Luxembourg
Office: + 352 26 25 90 30
Fax: +352 26 25 83 88
Email: oliviersciales@cs-avocats.lu
website: www.cs-avocats.lu
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/oliviersciales
Twitter: @oliviersciales

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.