The law1 of 25 March 2020 implementing EU Directive 2018/8432 (the "5th AML Directive") and amending the law of 12 November 2004 on the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing, as amended (the "2004 Law") entered into force on 30 March 2020 (the "New Law").
This New Law is part of a legislative package, including the law of 25 March 2020 establishing a central electronic data retrieval system concerning IBAN accounts and safe-deposit boxes (the "Central Register Law"). Additional information on the Central Register Law may be found at the following link.
The aim of the New Law is to make the necessary adaptations to the
2004 Law in order to ensure the implementation of most parts of the
5th AML Directive (although certain aspects of the 5th AML
Directive have already been implemented in the law relating to the
register of beneficial owners – more information can be found at
the following link). The New Law also to a certain extent goes
further than the 5th AML Directive, by directly implementing
certain of the recommendations of i.a. the Financial Action Task
Force ("FATF") which are not contained in the 5th AML
Directive.
In the above context, the current newsflash aims at setting out the
main changes brought by the New Law to the 2004 Law, and thus
affecting all professionals subject to anti-money laundering and
counter terrorism financing ("AML-CTF") obligations (such
as credit institutions, investment firms and other professionals of
the financial sector, investment funds and their management
companies, insurance companies, etc.). The main changes of the New
Law are in essence the following:
- New extended scope of professionals subject to AML-CTF obligations;
- Reinforcement of the customer due diligence ("CDD") measures applicable to professionals, including new rules for enhanced CDD ("EDD") measures;
- New rules relating to the recourse by professionals to third parties to carry out their CDD measures on their behalf (the so-called third party introducer regime);
- Reinforcement of the powers of competent authorities and self-regulatory bodies in charge of the supervision of professionals subject to AML-CTF obligations; and
- Strengthening of both national and international cooperation between competent authorities and self-regulatory bodies.
Footnotes
1. Bill of law °7467
2. EU Directive 2018/843 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing
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.