Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing
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A revised exposure draft of the AML/CTF bill and draft rules were released for comment on 13 July 2006. There is still no indication as to when the new law will commence, and the industry is pressing for a significant lead-in time to allow systems and procedures to be developed. The key changes for the mortgage industry are summarised below with a focus on the impact they will have on the mortgage industry. The proposed AML/CTF regime will apply to all lenders Although customer identification was always prudent business practice, it was only compulsory under the Financial Transactions Report Act (FTRA) for Authorised Deposit-taking Institutions (ADIs), such as banks, building societies and credit unions. The obligations under the FTRA were generally discharged by conducting a 100 point check or as 21 reference check. The new law will require all lenders to conduct customer identifications, maintain ‘know your customer’ (KYC) practices and develop a written AML/CTF Program. Delegating customer identification The ability to appoint external agents to conduct customer identification is of keen interest to the mortgage industry due to the extensive use of mortgage managers and brokers. The Act restricts the appointment of external agents by a reporting entity to three levels as follows. the provider of the designated service, including its internal agents the… |