The Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Regulations 2019 have been published, amending the existing Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017. The amending Regulations incorporate changes made to EU legislation under the EU’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive. The majority of the amending Regulations provisions will come into force on January 10, 2020, with the exception of those governing: (i) customer due diligence on anonymous prepaid cards; and (ii) requests for information about accounts and safe-deposit boxes, which will come into force on July 10, 2020 and September 10, 2020 respectively.
5MLD entered into force on July 9, 2018, making a number of changes to the EU Fourth Money Laundering Directive. Member States were obliged to transpose 5MLD into their national laws within 18 months of its entry into force. Although the U.K. is due to leave the EU on January 31, 2020, it is obliged to implement the 5MLD changes into national legislation as the implementation deadline falls on January 10, 2020. The U.K. government has also previously made it clear that it intended to implement the changes irrespective of whether the U.K. left the EU. The amending legislation takes account of the responses received to HM Treasury’s April 2019 consultation on its proposed implementation of 5MLD.
The key aspects of the amending Regulations are:
HM Treasury does not intend to issue further guidance on the amending Regulations as guidance has been prepared on a sectoral basis by supervisory and/or industry bodies. A list of this guidance is set out in the Explanatory Memorandum.
View the Regulations.
View the Explanatory Memorandum.
View details of the FCA's appointment as supervisor of UK crypto-asset business.
View details of HM Treasury's consultation on its proposed implementation of 5MLD.
View details of 5MLD.
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