Fund managers, jewelry dealers, lawyers and accountants will soon have to register with the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and submit client data, as the regulator tightens its watch on dirty money.
The AMLC has issued Regulatory Issuance (B) No. 1 which sets the guidelines for Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs) to register with the financial intelligence unit as institutions required to report their transactions.
“Under the Guidelines, the AMLC oversees compliance by DNFBPs with the provisions of the AMLA, as amended. Interestingly, the Guidelines that lawyers and accountants who provide the services enumerated under Section 3(a)(7) of the AMLA, as amended, are considered covered persons, and must therefore report covered and suspicious transactions to the AMLC,” the agency said in a statement.
“It has been observed in our series of engagements with them at the start of 2018 that the DNFBPs have been largely cooperative with the AMLC, recognizing that they could be used as instruments in the commission of money laundering or terrorism financing. Certainly, professional secrecy cannot be used as a cloak to commit crime. I see that in the foreseeable future, the Philippines will come to embrace international AML/CTF standards more and more,” AMLC Secretariat Executive Director Mel Georgie B. Racela was also quoted as saying. — Melissa Luz T. Lopez

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