The case
The wave of regulation that has prevailed for years continues to advance with the revision of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA). The AMLA bill was intensively discussed in the Federal Assembly and the legal commissions. It includes selective tightening of due diligence requirements in order to meet international standards in the future. The revised AMLA is expected to enter into force in mid-2022. The exact date depends on the progress of the work on the ordinances. Below a brief overview of two important innovations:
• Verification of information on the beneficial owner
• Regular updating of client information
Verification of information on the beneficial owner: The AMLA will explicitly require the financial intermediary to verify the information provided by the contracting party on the beneficial owner and control holder on the basis of meaningful information or data from trustworthy sources and to document this appropriately. This is a plausibility check. The identity of the beneficial owner(s) must be known and documented as well as checked for plausibility. The necessary scope or depth of the additional clarifications must be determined on a risk basis and thus depends on the individual case*.
*Dissenting opinion: For reasons of efficiency and safety, the review should be done systematically for all client files of the same risk group the same.
Regular updating of client information: The regular review and updating of all business relationships (especially KYC) will be required. The periodicity and depth of the review can be designed depending on the risk. Accordingly, clients with low risk are to be audited less often and with less effort than business relationships with increased risks. The obligation to update client information on a regular and risk-based basis is to be distinguished from event-driven updating (change in circumstances), in which changes in the relevant circumstances of the client are the trigger for updating client information.
Source: BDO – shortened – (German)
The commentary
The new regulation will probably not come into force for another year. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to conduct an early review of the presumed effects of the tightening of the AMLA on existing internal procedures and processes. Do the IT systems also need to be adapted? Parallel to this, any changes to the directives and the training of employees must be planned.
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