Consultation on 4th anti money laundering directive drawing to a close.
The consultation on the transposition of the Fourth Money Laundering Directive and the Funds Transfer Regulation draws to a close on 10 November. It is highlighted that the ‘government is keen to ensure that the UK’s AML/CFT regime effectively deters money laundering and terrorist financing activity, whilst being proportionate and managing burdens on businesses'.
The government highlights that it will ‘only “gold-plate” [go further than] the Directive or the Funds Transfer Regulation where there is good evidence that a material ML/TF risk exists that must be addressed’. It is highlighted in the consultation that the new legislation, Money Laundering and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017, will be made in order to transpose both the Directive and the Funds Transfer Regulation. It is also highlighted that the current Money Laundering Regulations 2007 and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2007 will be revoked, and that the new legislation will include a transitional provision. The new provisions will come into force by 26 June 2017 which is in line with Article 67 of the Directive and Article 27 of the Funds Transfer Regulation.
Transparency of beneficial ownership of legal entities and the People with Significant Control (PSC) register are also highlighted as important measures in a strong regime with a specific question asked as to how the PSC register is working.
The government has published a consultation that outlines its proposals or issues to be addressed for transposing the directive into UK law. All UK tax advisers in practice will be bound by the revised regulations, and we would welcome your input to ACCA’s response to the consultation.
Anti-money laundering and sanctions On 20 September 2016 the EU adopted a new legal framework to facilitate combating ISIL/Da'esh and Al-Qaida, as well as persons and entities associated with or supporting them (eg through terrorist financing). This affects all practitioners and businesses, who need to ensure that their policies and procedures are amended accordingly.
It has been highlighted that when practitioners and businesses falling within the money laundering directive requirements undertake Customer Due Diligence, they will need to refer to the EU ISIS/Al-Qaida sanctions list as this might become more comprehensive than the list issued by the UN. Entities and individuals subject to a travel ban or asset freeze will be listed in Annex I of COUNCIL DECISION (CFSP) 2016/1693.
This new framework also introduces the following whistleblowing obligation: ‘Any information that the provisions of this Regulation are being, or have been, circumvented shall be notified to the competent authorities of the Member States and, directly or through these competent authorities, to the Commission’ (COUNCIL REGULATION (EU) 2016/1686).
You can find details of other regimes and designated persons subject to sanctions here
