Procedures and Policies for AML Compliance

Procedures and Policies for AML Compliance: Senior Management are obliged to ensure that the firm has procedures and controls in place to demonstrate compliance with all aspects of the Act and approve them.

Senior Management must have a clearly defined process in place for the formal review and approval, at least annually, of the policies and procedures at appropriate levels.
Management must clearly set out all approved policies and procedures to enable staff to apply them in practice and ensure that all staff adhere to them.
All procedures should be compliant with the Central Bank’s core and sectoral guidance notes.

These internal policies and procedures should include:

measures to be taken to keep documents and information relating to customers up to date.
additional measures to be taken where there are reasonable grounds to believe that the circumstances relating to a customer, beneficial owner, service, product or transaction may present a heightened risk of money laundering or terrorist financing. The intermediary shall, in respect of that customer or beneficial owner, apply additional measures.
measures to be taken to prevent the use of money laundering or terrorist financing of products/transactions that could favour or facilitate anonymity.
monitor customers and transactions against both the EU and UN Sanctions Committee lists relating to terrorism.

Record Keeping

Intermediaries are required to keep records evidencing the procedures applied and the information obtained, when carrying out CDD on customers for a period of at least 5 yrs after the business relationship with their customer has ended.

(However, the Consumer Protection Code requires records to be kept for 6 yrs from date of last transaction with client.)

Record keeping is an essential part of the evidence trail and sufficient processes must be put in place to ensure that records are adequately kept.
Customer information collected to comply with the requirements of Legislation; and
Information regarding transactions undertaken by customers.

Possible formats in which records can be retained include one or more of the following:

Original documents
Photocopies of original documents
On microfiche
In scanned form
In computerised or electronic form

Intermediaries may keep such records wholly or partly in electronic form only if they are capable of being reproduced in a written form. All records should be capable of being reproduced in the State as per legislation for a period not less than 6 years.

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