For company directors
Are you certain your company meets anti-money laundering legislation, or do you doubt whether your current measures still hold up? A corporate aml audit identifies the gaps in your policy, before a supervisor finds them for you.
Which duties does an aml audit check?
The audit starts with your overall risk assessment. The law requires you to take account of your clients, your products and services, the countries involved, and your delivery channels, and to draw up policies, procedures and internal control measures proportionate to the nature and size of your company.
We also check whether you made the two required appointments correctly: one person responsible at the highest level within your management body, and one or more people who analyse atypical transactions and make reports to the financial intelligence unit. This last role is often called the AML compliance officer in practice.
For every client, we check whether you correctly identify the beneficial owner. For a company, an interest of more than twenty-five per cent of the voting rights, shares or capital counts as an indication of a sufficient interest. You also retain the identification data and supporting documents for ten years from the end of the business relationship.
An audit also looks at your internal channel for staff, agents and distributors, and at your permanent training programmes. The law requires a specific and independent channel that lets them report breaches confidentially and anonymously, separate from the channel used for your clients. Where that channel is missing, we record it as a finding in our report.
What does the audit deliver for you?
Our specialists have built up in-depth practical experience in anti-money laundering legislation. Together with you, we review the measures your company already applies today, and we assess whether they are sufficient or need refinement. You receive our findings as an audit report with concrete recommendations where needed.
During the audit, we review your policy, your procedures and a sample of your client files, and we talk to the staff involved. That way we test not only what is written down, but also how your company applies the rules in practice.
Does the audit show that your staff do not yet master the rules? Our aml training connects directly to that finding. Is your channel for staff not yet working properly? We build it out with you through our whistleblowing procedure page, and assign the compliance officer role through a delegation of powers.
A shortfall carries a real cost. The administrative fine can reach, for the largest category of obliged entities, 5,000,000 euro or ten per cent of annual net turnover, with a possible doubling where the breach produced a profit. An audit beforehand weighs little against that risk.
You will find more background on your duties on our page about anti-money laundering legislation. Back to our page for company directors.
Frequently asked questions
Which companies are subject to anti-money laundering legislation?
An exhaustive list in the Law of 18 September 2017 sets that out, including banks, insurers, notaries, estate agents, statutory auditors, accountants and dealers in certain goods. Lawyers are covered only for a limited list of acts, such as managing funds or setting up a company. Our audit therefore always starts by asking whether, and for which activities, you fall under that list.
Who must a company appoint to monitor its anti-money laundering duties?
One person responsible at the highest level within the management body, plus one or more people who analyse atypical transactions and make the report to the financial intelligence unit. Those people must first demonstrate reliability, expertise, availability and sufficient hierarchical authority. One person may combine both roles where the size of your company justifies it.
How high can the administrative fine reach for a breach?
Up to 5,000,000 euro or, if higher, ten per cent of annual net turnover for banks, insurers and similar entities. For accountants, notaries and estate agents, the ceiling is 1,250,000 euro. Where the breach generated a profit or avoided a loss, a judge may double that amount. Our audit maps that risk before you are confronted with it.
How does an aml audit work?
The audit starts with your overall risk assessment. During the audit, we review your policy, your procedures and a sample of your client files, and we talk to the staff involved. That way we test not only what is written down, but also how your company applies the rules in practice. You receive our findings as an audit report with concrete recommendations where needed.