PNoy signs law strengthening Anti-Money Laundering Act February 15, 2013 8:53pm 175 30 1 779 President Benigno Aquino III on Friday signed a new law that will strengthen the existing Anti-Money Laundering Act by requiring more institutions to submit suspicious financial transactions. “We are pleased to announce that today, President Aquino has signed Republic Act 10365, also known as An Act Further Strengthening the Anti-Money Laundering Law,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte told reporters via text. Under the new law, pre-need companies, money changers, real estate agents, and dealers of precious stones and metal are required to report financial transactions to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC). Before, only banks, insurance companies and securities dealers were obliged to submit covered and suspicious transaction reports to AMLC. Earlier, AMLC said that the amendment in the AMLA is a bid to prevent the Financial Action Task Force to include the Philippines on its blacklist. A blacklisting means possible sanctions to be imposed by the international financial community, like more costly and stricter requirements for financial transactions. The country is currently on the gray list, which means that it is not making sufficient progress against money laundering and terrorist financing in accordance to FATF standards. The FATF will meet on February 18 to 22 in Paris to review progress of member countries. Likewise, the newly-signed law enumerates additional predicate crimes such as trafficking in persons, bribery, counterfeiting, fraud and other illegal exactions, forgery, malversation, environmental crimes, and terrorism and its financing. According to AMLC, a predicate crime, also called unlawful activity, is an offense that generates dirty money or property. These are the crimes previously tagged as unlawful activity: kidnapping for ransom, drug trafficking, graft and corrupt practices, plunder, robbery and extortion, jueteng and masiao, piracy, qualified theft, swindling, and smuggling among others. — Rouchelle Dinglasan/KBK, GMA News
Posted on: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 05:08:17 +0000
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