Amendments to AML approaching fast

The report of the Committee on Budget and Public Finance on the resolution of the Senate on amendments to the Bill on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism (hereinafter: AML) is set for March 30, 2021. Therefore, it is to be expected that within the first half of 2021 new legislation implementing Directive (EU) 2018/843 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for money laundering or terrorist financing and amending Directives 2009/138/EC and 2013/36/EU (hereinafter: the 5th Directive) will come into force.

It is worth noting that not all provisions of the 5th Directive are included in the AML bill currently being reviewed by the Senate. It should be recalled that the Government announced the adoption of the draft bill on the Financial Information System in the first quarter of 2021. The aforementioned draft is important insofar as it plans to implement the regulations of Articles 32a of the 5th Directive and thus relates to anticipated central registers – i.e. centralized automatic electronic data retrieval mechanisms that allow, among other things, timely identification of any natural or legal person holding or controlling payment accounts and bank accounts identified by IBAN. The announced purpose of introducing the Financial Information System is to:

1. facilitate the locating of assets in connection with the proceedings conducted by certain entities (e.g. departments, courts, and public authorities),
2. introduce „proactive analysis” – i.e. analysis of wholesale data collected in the registry to select those accounts that can be used for criminal activities,
3. reduce the operating costs and the bureaucratic burden on public administration and financial institutions.