The General Scheme of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) (Amendment) Bill was recently published by the Department of Justice and Equality.
The purpose of the Bill is to give effect to the 4th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD4) which has the aim of strengthening laws in the EU combatting money laundering and terrorist financing. AMLD4 must be transposed into Irish law by 26 June 2017.
Central to AMLD4 is a greater emphasis on a risk-based approach to addressing money laundering and terrorist financing compliance. Those carrying out customer due diligence measures will be obliged to determine the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing posed by a particular transaction, service or customer, and apply customer due diligence measures accordingly.
The provisions of AMLD4 that require companies to establish registers detailing their beneficial owners were transposed into Irish law separately. For our previous briefing on these beneficial ownership registers, see here.
Contributed by Aoife Kavanagh
