Conditions for the waiver of financial security measures in accordance with the amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act

The amendment to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act (‘AML/CFT’) provides for an increase in the threshold for the value of payment transactions and the maximum amount stored electronically, referred to in Article 38.1.1 and 38.1.2, from the equivalent of EUR 50 to EUR 150. This means the obliged institutions, taking into account the identified risk of money laundering and terrorist financing, may refrain from applying the financial security measures referred to in Article 34 (1) (1-3) with respect to electronic money within the meaning of the Payment Services Act of 19 August 2011, provided that the following conditions are met to mitigate the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing:

1. a payment instrument may not be credited or this instrument has a maximum monthly payment transactions’ limit in the amount equivalent to EUR 150, which amount may only be used within the territory of the Republic of Poland;
2. the maximum amount stored electronically does not exceed the equivalent of EUR 150;
3. The payment instrument may only be used for purchasing goods or services;
4. the payment instrument may not be topped up with electronic money issued without financial security measures;
5. the electronic money issuer conducts ongoing analysis of the transactions carried out or monitors business relationships in such a way as to identify unusual transactions or transactions whose circumstances indicate that they may be related to money laundering or terrorist financing.

The amendment also extends the exceptions to the above provision, assuming that the provision of paragraph 1 does not apply in the case of:

1. the redemption of electronic money or taking in cash the value of electronic money, when the amount to be redeemed or taken in cash exceeds the equivalent of EUR 50,
2. when the payment transaction is initiated via the Internet or a device that can be used for remote communication and when the amount of a single transaction exceeds the equivalent of EUR 50.