Regulated entities told: Observe new anti-money laundering strictures
INSURANCE Commissioner Emmanuel F. Dooc has ordered insurance companies to participate in the government’s information gathering to determine the country’s risks of involvement in money laundering and terrorism financing activities.
Dooc issued Circular Letter 2014-33 requiring insurance companies, preneed companies and mutual benefit associations to submit information that will help determine the country’s possible exposure to the global flow of illegal funds.
The information that will be required from the insurance companies include data on total volume and average transaction size for the products that they are offering, and other statistics on risky customers, international transactions, transactions with offshore centers or tax havens, and transactions in high-risk regions of the world.
“As part of its data and information gathering, the Insurance Commission (IC) shall require, if necessary, pertinent data and information from the regulated entities. Cooperation from all concerned entities is expected as it will ensure the success of formulating internationally accepted standards to address money laundering/terrorism financing,” Dooc’s circular said.
The involvement of the IC in the information gathering is mandated by President Aquino’s Memorandum Circular 64 issued in June which provides for the conduct of a national risk assessment (NRA) on possible involvement in money laundering and terrorism financing activities.
The NRA working group is headed by the Anti-Money Laundering Council and its members are tasked to gather data and information from their respective regulated entities to formulate internationally accepted standards to address money laundering and terrorism financing.
The conduct of the NRA is part of the Philippines’s obligations as part of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering, an international organization founded in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1997 as a forum for countries to cooperate in combating money laundering and terrorism financing.
