Money laundering
The Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) (Amendment) Act 2021 came into force on 24 April. In summary, as of that date, engagement letters need to refer to the 2010 to 2021 Acts; there needs to be enhanced supervision of persons from high-risk countries and an extension of the period of enhanced supervised of politically exposed persons (PEPs).
There are also changes to the regulations of trusts and for prepaid gift cards.
The EU has published proposals to make substantial changes to the reporting of sustainability by very large companies
Beneficial ownership
The newly introduced European Union (Anti-money Laundering: Beneficial Ownership of Trusts) Regulations 2021 apply to certain trusts where the trustees are resident in the state, or which are otherwise administered in the state, or the trust owns a business or land in the state.
The trustees of such trusts are now required to obtain and record beneficial ownership information in the trust's beneficial ownership register and to make that information available to the Garda Síochána, the Revenue Commissioners, a competent authority or the Criminal Assets Bureau.
The trustees also need to give access to the register to any designated person with whom they have an occasional transaction (ie a bank or accountant). There are certain provisions with respect to keeping the trust's beneficial ownership register up to date.
Revenue will set up and maintain the Central Register of Beneficial Ownership of Trusts. All relevant trusts will have six months to register and to upload their beneficial ownership information.
Any designated person becoming aware that the central register contains incorrect or incomplete information is obliged to file a notice of discrepancy with the Registrar.
Unrestricted access to the central register is available to certain high-ranking members of the Garda Síochána, the Financial Intelligence Unit, Revenue and the Criminal Assets Bureau. Certain other persons also have limited access if they are engaged in the prevention, detection or investigation of possible money laundering or terrorist financing; this includes staff from a supervisory authority including ACCA.
Access to basic information on the register is available to a designated person who is conducting customer due diligence on that trust prior to undertaking work for the trust.
The regulations amend Section 35 of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) (Amendment) Act 2010 by making it a requirement that prior to the establishment of a business relationship, 'a designated person shall ascertain that information concerning the beneficial ownership of the customer is entered in the relevant trust’s beneficial ownership register or in the Central Register of Beneficial Ownership of trusts, as the case may be'.
The fines for noncompliance are substantial. The legislation revokes the European Union (Anti-Money Laundering: Beneficial Ownership of Trusts) Regulations 2019 (S.I. No.16 of 2019).
GoAML
Members working in practice should all be registered with GoAML, which acts as the central reception point for the receipt, analysis and dissemination of information contained in Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) and other reports from competent authorities regarding suspicions of money laundering and terrorist financing. Many in financial services will also have access to a GoAML account as a means of identifying the latest prevailing scam or criminal activity. Some recent announcements were in respect of vaccine fraud, invoice redirect and investment fraud.
Sustainable reporting
On 21 April, the EU published proposals to make substantial changes to the reporting of sustainability by very large companies. The Non-Financial Reporting Directive will be updated with a suite of directives and regulations, which will require the Irish state to:
- amend company law to add accounting disclosures for corporate sustainability reporting (CSR) for large companies
- allow SMEs to also make CSR reporting with reduced rules
- amend company law for audit requirements to allow for the audit/assurance of CSR reports
- increase the scope of supervision by the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority to allow them to supervise the above
The full suite of measures are set out in the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (previously called the Non-financial Reporting Directive), the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and the Taxonomy Regulation. Together they will:
- extend the scope of who needs to make sustainable reports
- require assurance on reporting by auditors
- require more specific details as to what exactly is disclosed
- specify where the information is disclosed and that it is machine readable
There are six member state options in the Corporate Sustainable Reporting Directive. One of the member state options is which companies come in scope; another is whether the government wants to designate a type of person other than a statutory auditor to provide assurance on the completeness and accuracy of the CSR disclosures. ACCA will engage with the government on the most appropriate option to choose.
