IMPORTANT CHANGES TO LEGISLATION

There is new regime of checks all Accounting Firms, Legal Firms and Real Estate Agents requiring us to comply with AML/CFT legislation. Anyone who has opened a bank account since 2013 , would have noticed the extra information required. This will now flow onto Accounting Firms along with Legal Firms and Real Estate Agents when dealing with customers.

Effective from the 1st October 2018 Accounting Practices will be subject to the Anti-Money Laundering and counter Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML).  This law requires us to collect certain information about our clients. This will require us to request some personal details which we are required to have on file, so thank you in advance for your cooperation and assistance with this process.

The new law states that we are unable to commence working for a client until we have received all of the required information.

What does this mean for you?

Verify Your Identity And Your Residential Address
From the 1st October onwards as part of the AML customer due diligence (CDD) we will be required to verify the identity of all of our clients as well as their residential address.  This will require us to obtain from you photo ID as well as a document showing your residential address.

Where there is a company, a trust or other type of entity such as a body corporate, we will be required to obtain information for all of the individuals associated with the entity such as directors, shareholders, trustees, beneficiaries and committee members.

There may be situations where we will be required to ask you about the nature and purpose of the proposed work you are asking us to do.  We may also be required to obtain information that confirms the source of the funds for the transaction.

Checks Required For Every New Matter
The AML law applies to both new and existing clients and requires all Accountants, Lawyers and Real Estate firms to file compliance reports with the appropriate authorities detailing all transactions we have dealt with and also notifying the authorities of any suspicious activity.

We expect that these new requirements will over time become familiar and will not inconvenience legitimate transactions.  Before we start working for you, we will let you know what information we need and what documents you need to show us and let us photocopy.

We will keep you posted of developments closer to the time.
Thanking you in advance for your cooperation with working through this new compliance matter.
Any questions please ask one of our team.