New Money Laundering Law 19.574 And The Impact On Doing Business In Uruguay

The Uruguayan Parliament has passed a new money laundering law that will help to regulate the prevention of money laundering and the financing of terrorism in the country.

The new law updates the anti-money laundering and terrorism financing regime, and includes new obligations for certain professionals and organizations.

On 10 January 2018, Law No. 19,574 was approved by the Uruguay's Parliament which puts all the rules and information about anti money laundering into one document including the consequences of not complying with the law. The law contains the objectives of the Anti- Money Laundering (AML) and Financing of Terrorism Commission (FTC), supervised by the Government and composed by the Ministers, and the Presidency Secretary. The FTC will work together with the AML unit of the Central Bank of Uruguay.

Who is affected by the new money laundering law in Uruguay?

This new law will affect any person or company that is regulated by the Central Bank of Uruguay (CBU). The law divides the obligated parties into two categories, 1) financial fellows and 2) non-financial fellows.

Financial fellows are regulated by the Central Bank and include:

Banks Trustees Money Exchange Companies Stock Exchanges Pension Funds Investment Fund Administrators Investment Advisors The non-financial fellows are the newly obligated party and include:

Lawyers when they act on behalf of their clients Free Zone companies Political Parties Foundations Any non-profit organization Public Accountants when they act as an independent advisor Trusts Any corporate services provider Public Notary In Uruguay, any private person could be a nonprofessional trustee. They could act as trustee in private trust which are not regulated by the CBU. This could cause money laundering to occur in the past but now with...