Antidirty money rules tightened

The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) has issued tighter rules mandating the registration of covered persons on its online system.

In a statement, the council said it had issued Resolution No. 107 which approved the AMLC Registration and Reporting Guidelines (ARRG).

“The four-part ARRG is AMLC’s comprehensive effort to provide the legal and policy framework for registration of covered persons in AMLC’s online system, and to ensure proper and timely compliance with reporting procedures,” it said.

AMLC Secretariat executive director Mel Georgie B. Racela said it was a significant step toward improving the quality and usefulness of information and reports submitted by covered persons.
The imposition of appropriate sanctions, after observance of due process, would ensure a culture of compliance among them, he said.

“The AMLC had long wanted a revamp of the system and rules on registration and reporting due to a surge in the number of covered persons, and thus, of their transactions. Moreover, the quality of suspicious transaction reports (STRs) had to be improved,” Racela said.

The adoption of the ARRG should strengthen the tools available to the AMLC in its fight against money laundering and terrorism financing, he added.

It consolidated all AMLC resolutions on registration and reporting of persons covered by the antimoney laundering law.

A major feature of the ARRG is the adoption of the new 18-digit registration number that facilitates identification of the covered person, its type of business and industry and geographic location or branch. It also anticipates future demand for registration into the AMLC’s database and online system.

“The ARRG also reiterates the requirement on covered persons to submit complete, accurate and timely STRs, and imposes additional requirements in the manner of submission to the AMLC.”

The submission of covered transaction reports (CTRs) beyond 12:01 a.m. of the day following the fifth working day from occurrence of the transaction shall be considered as non-submission of CTRs, and may be subject to appropriate administrative sanction,” it added.

Under the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) of 2001, covered persons, including banks, insurance firms and securities dealers must submit STRs within five days from the date a transaction is determined to be of suspicious nature.

Another salient feature is the requirement to establish an STR reporting chain, with reasonable time frames, which starts from the flagging of alerts, to analysis, investigation and escalation, and ends with the final decision whether or not to file an STR.

“The said reporting chain should be written in the covered person’s money laundering and terrorist financing prevention program, and duly approved by its board of directors. Proper controls should ensure confidentiality of the process,” the AMLC said.