Anti-Money Laundering

The Money Laundering Regulations 2007 came into
force on the 15th December 2007

Who’s affected?

The new regulations will have an impact on a range of businesses:

All regulated business
Any business that deals in financial information: and
Firms that might be expected to be involved in cash deals worth more than €15,000 in a single transaction

This means that the new legislation will now affect a broader range of organisations, including:

Credit Institutions
Auditors
External Accountants & Tax Advisers
Trust & Company Service Providers
High Value Dealers where a cash transaction may exceed €15,000
Financial Institutions
Insolvency Practitioners
Independent Legal Professionals
Estate Agents
Casinos

All businesses within the categories are obligated from sole practitioners to PLC’s.

What must they do?

Businesses are required to:

Identifying the customer and verifying the customer on the basis of documents, data or information obtained from a reliable and independent source;
Identifying, where applicable, the beneficial owner and taking risk based and adequate measures to verify his identity so that the firm is satisfied that it knows who the beneficial owners are;
Obtaining information on the purpose and intended nature of the business relationship; and
Conducting ongoing monitoring, on a risk sensitive basis, of the business relationship.

Businesses impacted by these regulations are recommended to utilise online systems, using credible third party sources and where possible, to check source documents.