There is an initiative to introduce several changes to the anti-money laundering legislation (with proposed effectiveness as of March 1, 2018), by virtue of which customer due diligence requirements are to be modified.
The Parliament has been debating the Government proposal seeking to transpose the fourth AML Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council of May 20, 2015. The vast majority of amendments that are proposed to be effective as of March 1, 2018 concern Act No. 297/2008 Coll. on Protection against Laundering the Proceeds of Criminal Activities and on Protection against Terrorist Financing and on the Amendment and Supplement of Certain Acts, as amended. The amendments of other affected acts are proposed to become effective as of July 1, 2018.
The proposal calls for minimum actions that "obliged persons" (such as banks, financial institutions, auditors, accountants and a number of other persons) should take within simplified customer due diligence. Under general customer due diligence, obliged persons would be required to examine the beneficial owners of the client and whether or not the client or beneficial owner is an internationally sanctioned person or politically exposed person. In business relationships with a politically exposed person, the obliged person would be required to conduct enhanced customer due diligence. The proposal also includes the recommendation that the definition of politically exposed person be significantly extended.
Due to the risks associated with cash payments, it is proposed that the limit required for a legal entity or a natural person – entrepreneur trading in cash to be classified as an obliged person be reduced from the current EUR 15,000 to EUR 10,000.
It is also proposed that the concerned persons be required to identify their beneficial owners, maintain (updated) their identification data (if they are not recorded in the Register of Public Sector Partners) and store them for a certain period of time.
Last but not least, with proposed effectiveness as of July 1, 2018, certain legal entities registered in the Commercial Register would also be required to register identification data about their beneficial owners. If the law is adopted, the legal entities concerned and registered in the Commercial Register before June 30, 2018 will be obliged to register data concerning their beneficial owners by December 31, 2019.
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