In-house AML support

The anti-money laundering statute requires every obliged company to carry out an overall risk assessment, to keep policies and internal controls proportionate to its size, and to appoint one person responsible at the highest level.

The Act of 18 September 2017 lists, in Article 5, paragraph 1, a closed set of obliged entities, from credit institutions to statutory auditors, accountants and notaries. Article 7 then sets a risk-based approach: every obliged entity applies the preventive measures of the Act in proportion to its own assessment of the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing. Article 16 requires it, for that purpose, to carry out an overall risk assessment covering its clients, its products and services, the countries involved and its delivery channels.

Article 8 requires the company to adopt policies, procedures and internal control measures proportionate to its nature and size, approved by a member of senior management. Article 9 further requires one person responsible at the highest level, plus one or more people who analyse atypical transactions and prepare the report to the Financial Intelligence Processing Unit. The anti-money laundering regulation of the National Bank of Belgium calls that second person the AMLCO and requires an annual activity report to senior management.

Article 10 requires a specific and independent channel through which staff can report breaches confidentially and anonymously. Article 11 requires ongoing training programmes for the staff concerned. These two duties are the ones an inspection most often finds missing, and the ones a temporary or part-time compliance function falls behind on first.

Article 85 assigns a supervisory authority per category: the National Bank of Belgium for credit institutions, the FSMA, the Institute for Tax Advisors and Accountants, the Supervisory Board of Statutory Auditors and the National Chamber of Notaries, each for its own profession. Article 132 lets that authority impose an administrative fine of up to 5,000,000 euros or ten percent of annual turnover for the largest categories, and up to 1,250,000 euros for the accountancy professions and notaries.

Everest (anti)fraud fills the role of AMLCO or compliance officer remotely or on site, and builds the risk assessment, the policies and the reporting channel the law requires together with the company.

Every company caught by the anti-money laundering statute starts from a different position: a large credit institution already has a compliance department, while a small accountancy practice is often building its file for the first time. We look together with you at your concrete needs: a temporary replacement for an absent AMLCO, support for a first risk assessment, guidance through an inspection by the supervisory authority, or a full review through our AML audit. Depending on the situation, we work remotely or at your premises.

A large part of the daily work sits in customer due diligence: Article 21 requires identification at every business relationship, and from 10,000 euros for an occasional client. Article 60 then requires a ten-year retention period for identification data and supporting documents, and Article 62 requires that data to be erased once that period expires. We help the company run those two opposite duties, keeping and erasing, within one procedure.

Where a concrete question about the origin of a client’s assets comes up during this support, we turn it into a legal origin audit. Where staff need tailored training, we refer them to our AML training. A fellow lawyer who does not take on this instruction himself finds, on the page for fellow lawyers, what Everest (anti)fraud takes over from a file and what stays with him.

Article 5, paragraph 1, of the Act of 18 September 2017 lists the obliged entities in a closed list, from credit institutions to statutory auditors, accountants, tax advisers, notaries and judicial officers. A lawyer is an obliged entity only for a closed list of transactions under Article 5, paragraph 1, 28°, such as forming or managing a company. Outside that list a lawyer falls outside the Act.

Article 9, paragraph 2, of the Act requires every obliged company to appoint one or more people who analyse atypical transactions and prepare the report to the Financial Intelligence Processing Unit. The anti-money laundering regulation of the National Bank of Belgium calls that person the AMLCO and requires an annual activity report to senior management and to the legal governing body.

Article 60 of the Act requires a ten-year retention period for identification data and supporting documents, running from the end of the business relationship or from the occasional transaction. Article 62, paragraph 1, then requires the company to erase the personal data once that period expires, subject to other applicable legislation.

Article 85 assigns a supervisory authority per category: the National Bank of Belgium for credit institutions, the FSMA, the Institute for Tax Advisors and Accountants, the Supervisory Board of Statutory Auditors and the National Chamber of Notaries, each for its own profession. Article 132 lets that authority impose an administrative fine of up to 5,000,000 euros or ten percent of annual turnover for the largest categories, and up to 1,250,000 euros for the accountancy professions and notaries.