We remind that, in the Official Gazette (Part I) no. 589 of July 18, 2019, Law no.129 was published for the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as for the modification and completion of some normative acts.
It was established that the entities to which the new provisions refer, including banks, notaries, lawyers, accountants and traders, must comply by January 17, 2020. “The reporting entities comply with their obligations in accordance with this law, within 180 days from the date of its entry into force ”, according to the normative act.
Law no. 129/2019 establishes the national framework for preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing, which includes, but is not limited to, the following categories of authorities, institutions and private companies (reporting entities):
- credit institutions Romanian legal persons and branches of credit institutions persons
foreign legal entities; - Romanian financial institutions and branches of financial institutions
foreign legal entities - the administrators of private pension funds, in their own name, and for the pension funds
private ones he manages, except for occupational vocational pensions, - providers of gambling services;
- auditors, accounting experts, and authorized accountants, fiscal, financial, business or accounting consultancy auditors
- public notaries, lawyers, executors and other persons exercising liberal legal professions, in case they provide assistance for drawing up or perfecting operations for their clients regarding the purchase or sale of immovable property, shares or social shares or elements of the fund; trade, administration of financial instruments, securities or other assets of clients, transactions or transactions that involve a sum of money or a transfer of property, the establishment or administration of bank accounts, savings or financial instruments, organizing the process of underwriting contributions necessary for the establishment, functioning or administration of a company; the establishment, administration or management of such companies, collective investment undertakings in securities or other similar structures, as well as if they participate on behalf or for their clients in any operation of financial character or aiming at immovable property;
- Service providers for companies or trusts, other than those provided in the letter. e) and f);
- Real estate agents
- other entities and natural persons who trade, as professionals, goods or provide services, insofar as they carry out cash transactions whose minimum limit represents the equivalent in RON of 10,000 EUR, regardless of whether the transaction is executed through a single operation or through several operations that have a connection between them.
The reporting entities have the obligation to report to the Office transactions with amounts in cash, in lei or in currency, whose minimum limit represents the equivalent in RON of 10.000 EUR. Credit institutions and financial institutions defined in accordance with this law will submit online reports on external transfers to and from accounts, in lei or in currency, whose minimum limit represents the equivalent in RON of EUR 15.000.
Customer awareness measures
Reporting entities, when applying the measures for acquainting the client, have the obligation to keep in letter or electronic format, in a form admitted in the judicial procedures, all the registrations obtained by applying these measures, such as copies of the identification documents, the monitors and verifications carried out, including the information obtained through the electronic identification means necessary to comply with the knowledge requirements regarding the clients, for a period of 5 years from the date of termination of the business relationship with the client or from the date of the occasional transaction.
We underline the fact that the criminal prosecution bodies will communicate to the Office, annually, the stage of resolving the information transmitted, as well as the amount of the amounts in the accounts of the natural or legal persons for whom the blocking was ordered, as a result of the suspensions made or of the insurance measures ordered.
The client’s knowledge measures are divided, according to the law, in standard measures, simplified measures and additional measures, depending on the degree of risk of the client.
The reporting entities will apply the standard measures to know the client in the case of entities from which they receive funds greater than the equivalent in RON of EUR 1,000.
Another change is the one related to the politically exposed persons, in the sense that they are not included under the umbrella of this notion to the presidential councils and the state councilors, but the members of the governing bodies of the political parties are introduced.