Amendments to the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 in Cayman Islands
On June 1, 2007, amendments to the Money Laundering Regulations (2006 Revision) came into effect by virtue of the the Money Laundering (Amendment) Regulations 2007. The amendments come after an amendment to the Proceeds of Criminal Conduct Law (2005 Revision) on May 30, 2007, which extended the definition of “money laundering”, and after the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) published revised Guidance Notes in March 2007 on the Prevention and Detection of Money Laundering.
The main changes included into Amending Regulations deal mainly with the following:
- to incorporate the offences under the Terrorism Law into the definition of “money laundering”;
- to include knowledge or suspicion of terrorist financing into the procedures of identification and reporting;
- to introduce the concept of an “appropriate internal audit function” as an obligatory internal control procedure;
- to make it clear that liability for failure to obtain identification information from an eligible introducer remains with the person who provides the financial services in the Cayman Islands;
- to introduce extensive provisions on identification and record keeping for wire transfers.
The Amending Regulations have already come into force. However, there will be no prosecution for failing to comply with the identification and record keeping requirements that related to wire transfers until January 1, 2008. This gives payment service providers time for putting the appropriate procedures and technical mechanisms in place.