PRESS RELEASE 14 December 2012
CHANGES TO BE MADE TO AML/CFT HANDBOOK

Today the Commission has published a Feedback Paper following consultation in 2011 and throughout 2012 on proposals to amend the Handbook for the Prevention and Detection of Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism for Financial Services Business (the ” AML/CFT Handbook”) and the Money Laundering (Jersey) Order 2008 (the “Money Laundering Order”).

In a Consultation Paper published in late 2011, the Commission proposed:

providing additional guidance on how to assess country risk;
setting more prescriptive guidance on customer due diligence (“CDD”) measures to be applied in the case of an assessment of higher country risk;
updating “suitable certification” provisions – where a customer presents evidence of identity to a trusted third party rather than directly to a person that must carry out CDD measures (a “relevant person”); and
updating a limited number of cases where a relevant person may carry out simplified CDD measures.

As explained in the Feedback Paper, respondents were broadly supportive of the proposals. However:

many felt that proposals for prescriptive guidance on CDD measures to be applied in the case of higher country risk ran contrary to the principle of a risk-based approach; and
in the case of a relationship between a relevant person and a trust, foundation or legal person, a number said that it should be possible for that relevant person to place reliance on evidence of identity obtained by a trust company that is regulated and supervised by the Commission (or similar supervisor).

These two areas of concern have been addressed in revisions to Sections 3 and 4 of the AML/CFT Handbook, which are attached as appendices to the Feedback Paper. Both revised sections will come into effect on 1 February 2013.
Those changes that are dependent on an amendment to the Money Laundering Order will take longer to bring into effect.

http://www.jerseyfsc.org/the_commission/general_information/press_releases/release295.asp