Newsletter Abbatescianni September 2017

~ LEGISLATION ~

Legislative Decree No. 90 of 25 May 2017 - Implementation of the directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of use of the financial system for laundering of proceeds from criminal activities and the financing of terrorism, containing an amendment to directives 2005/60/CE and 2006/70/CE and the implementation of regulation (EU) No. 2015/847 on data accompanying transfers of funds, which replaces regulation (CE) No. 1781/2006

Through the legislative decree published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale [Official Gazette] No. 140 of 19 June 2017, which entered into effect on 4 July, the regulations on money laundering described in legislative decree No. 231/2007 were entirely rewritten.

Among the principal innovations introduced by the measure, there is a reorganisation of the regulations for notaries and lawyers.

With regard to these professional categories, included among the recipients of the measures on combating money laundering, the new regulations undertake to eliminate the obligation to maintain a register of clients, albeit while confirming the duty to retain the identification documents of the same parties.

Having eliminated the mandatory character of the register, failure to maintain which in the past is no longer subject to sanctions, lawyers and notaries must retain documents acquired during operations for adequate verification of the client base and which permit a reconstruction of:

the date of awarding of the assignment or the start of the professional relationship; the data identifying the client, the effective holder and the executor (or of the party appointed to operate in the name and on behalf of the client or to whom representation powers were in any case granted which allow the same party to operate in the name and on behalf of the client), as well as information on the purpose and nature of the operation; the means of payment used. In observance of the regulations on privacy, all of these data must be retained for ten years, including via electronic instruments, and their complete and timely accessibility must be guaranteed by the investigative authorities (for this purpose, the obligation of submission within 3 days has been removed).

The acquisition of the information identifying clients must be timely, i.e. it must take place within 30 days of the initiation of the ongoing relationship or of the granting of the assignment, of the execution of the operation or of the professional service, of the change or termination of the ongoing relationship or of the professional service.

The new regulations have expanded the application of this risk-based approach, consisting of the need to comply with the obligations of appropriate verification of the client base, on the basis of an...