Services › Anti-Money Laundering › AML/CFT Act and Regulations
The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act) places obligations on New Zealand’s financial institutions and casinos to detect and deter money laundering and terrorism financing.
The Act will ensure that businesses take appropriate measures to guard against money laundering and terrorism financing. This enhances the reputation of individual businesses, and of New Zealand as a safe place in which to do business.
AML/CFT Regulations and Commencement Order 2011
The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act Commencement Order 2011 brings the full AML/CFT Act into force on 30 June 2013. This will give reporting entities time to prepare for the new regime. Businesses must be compliant with all of the obligations within the AML/CFT Act and Regulations that apply to them on this date.
There are four sets of AML/CFT Regulations:
The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (Definitions) Regulations 2011 commence on 28 July 2011 and will:
- Include certain financial advisers and trust and company service providers
- Exclude certain entities from the Act
- Establish thresholds for occasional transactions and beneficial ownership
- Extend eligibility for designated business groups and establish the procedure for electing to be a member.
- Exempt some transactions and services from the Act or parts of the Act
- Require customer due diligence to be carried out on anonymous accounts
- Require information to be collected about beneficiaries of trusts that are customers of reporting entities
- Expand the scope of entities to which simplified due diligence can be applied
- Prescribe annual reporting requirements.
- Prescribe the form in which the Minister must make Ministerial exemptions
