New money laundering regulations come into force in the UK
The UKGC has published the new guidance for the prevention of money laundering around the gambling industry.
UK.- The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) updated on Friday the Money Laundering Regulations, which implement the EU 5th Money Laundering Directive. The new rules came into force on January 10, 2020.
The UKGC also published the 5th edition of its guidance for remote and non-remote casinos on the prevention of money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism, with immediate effect as well.
“The Commission recognises that it takes time to implement changes and we will take that into account, but we expect to see that operators have acted promptly, invested appropriately (if technology is required to accommodate the changes) and implemented changes with the requisite urgency. Additionally, the publication of this updated guidance must result in casino businesses reviewing, and accordingly amending, their money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessments, as well as the associated policies, procedures and controls,” said the UKGC.
The main changes
The UKGC said that some of the changes that have been incorporated are taking appropriate measures in preparation for, and during, the adoption of new products or business practices and to assess and mitigate any money laundering risks arising from such adoption, in addition to the existing and similar requirement for new technology.
They also include having specific policies, procedures and controls for the previously mentioned measures; taking appropriate measures to ensure that any agents that operators use for the purposes of their business are given appropriate training in anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing; further direction in relation to what information may be regarded as ‘obtained from a reliable source which is independent of the person whose identity is being verified’.
Moreover, further requirements for enhanced customer due diligence measures for high-risk third countries, complex or unusually large transactions, and where there are unusual patterns of transactions, or the transactions have no apparent economic or legal purpose, as well as customers who are beneficiaries of life insurance policies or the customer is a third-country national who has received citizenship in an EEA state in exchange for the transfer of capital, purchase of property, government bonds or investment in corporate entities in the EEA state.
