by John McCarthy Consulting Ltd. | Apr 10, 2022 | Blog, News
At a recent meeting of the CRO Forum (an umbrella group for the accountancy, legal and company formation profession liaising with CRO officials) it was revealed that there are 30,000 companies out of a population of 250,000 companies that had not, as at February 2022, filed their beneficial owner details with the Register of Beneficial Owners.
Staff at the RBO are hoping that some of this shortfall can be accounted for by companies which will be struck off for not filing their annual returns on time.
The April 2021 Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Acts 2010 to 2021 made it a requirement for designated persons to report two types of offence to the RBO. These were originally covered in our blog in May 2021 here. These offences are:
- ‘Discrepancy’ and
- ‘Non-compliance’
Both offences are defined in the AML law.
According to the meeting minutes, in the month of January 2022, the RBO received over 1,000 ‘non-compliance’ and ‘discrepancy’ reports, which would suggest a full-year figure of over 12,000.
Are your AML Policies Controls & Procedures up to date?
We have just released our latest Anti-Money Laundering Policies Controls & Procedures Manual (March 2022) – View the Table of Contents click here.
We have also just released an updated AML webinar (March 2022) available here, which accompanies the AML Manual. It explains the current legal AML reporting position for accountancy firms.
To ensure your letters of engagement and similar templates are up to date visit our site here where immediate downloads are available in Word format. A bulk discount is available for orders of five or more items if bought together.
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by John McCarthy Consulting Ltd. | Jun 3, 2021 | Blog, News
According to statistics quoted by Chartered Accountants Ireland recently, there are over 2,100 entities registered to make reports on the GoAML website of the Garda Síochana. This is one of the two websites where anti-money laundering (AML) reports must be made in Ireland. The other being the Revenue Commissioners www.ros.ie website. However the surprising aspect of this is that there are only 194 accountants/auditors on this list.
Each of these firms should be registered on the GoAML site in order to make reports of suspicious transactions involving money laundering. In 2020 there were over 29,000 reports of money laundering suspicions from many industry sectors, to the Garda/Revenue Commissioners.
According to the latest Profile of the Profession report from the Irish Audit & Accounting Supervisory Authority, there were 1,155 statutory audit firms approved to carry out audits in Ireland that had offices in Ireland. Even if a firm has no report to make at the moment, it’s still a good idea to register to be able to access knowledge and information provided by the Garda Financial Intelligence Unit.
This does not even represent the total population of potential registrants, as there are many practicing firms of accountants in Ireland that no longer need audit registration, but will have AML responsibilities, as the law affects all accountants who are principals in firms in practice. The numbers of these non-audit firms are harder to assess, because they would also include bookkeepers as well as those entities specialising in payroll and similar accountancy-related back-office activities. Let’s make an educated guess that there are around 2,000 firms of accountants/bookkeepers in total in Ireland, including audit firms.
The percentage registered is therefore under 10% of the total of potential firms of accountants/auditors that ought to be registered, so it’s no wonder the volume of money laundering reports from accountants annually in Ireland, is so low.
Elsewhere it was reported by the AccountingWebUK in April 2019 that ‘26% of accountants surveyed in the UK, did not have an assigned MLRO in their firm.’ It is one of the requirements of Irish/UK AML law to appoint a ‘nominated officer’ (commonly called the MLRO or Money Laundering Reporting Officer), with ultimate responsibility for the implementation of anti-money laundering policies and training.
For more about accountants’ AML compliance obligations, see our AML Policies, Controls & Procedures Manual for 2021.
The Manual contains all the latest requirements relevant to accountants contained in the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Acts 2010 to 2021 now fully in force. Future blogs will look at various parts of the new and existing provisions of this legislation.
For more blogs please visit this link and for our publications and manuals and services click here.
by John McCarthy Consulting Ltd. | May 20, 2021 | Blog, News
In last week’s blog we alerted readers to the first of the two types of anomaly that ‘designated persons’ are obliged to notify to the relevant registration authority:
- A discrepancy – there is an error on the Beneficial ownership Register; or
- Non-compliance – the Beneficial Ownership details on the register are blank (we believe this to be the case for approximately 20% of obliged entities).
This week we explain what to do if you uncover non-compliance. Having appointed an RBO Liaison Officer – (see last week’s blog for the detailed steps to do this using a BEN3A Form), then the non-compliance can be reported to the Registrar of Beneficial Ownership using Form NCN.
A Non-Compliance Notice (Form NCN) is where, having searched for the beneficial ownership details of a particular entity, the person searching has found that no beneficial ownership details have been filed, and is then obliged to formally notify the Registrar that the entity in question appears to have failed to file the correct information with the RBO in accordance with Regulations 20 and 21 of SI 110/2019. Form NCN may be downloaded from the RBO website at the link given here.
Only a ‘designated person’ as defined in Section 25, Criminal Justice (Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing) Act, 2010 (as amended), is entitled to report a discrepancy to the Registrar. This is usually the Money Laundering Reporting Officer. However a ‘non-compliance’ matter may be reported by anyone, including, but not necessarily the RBO Liaison Officer. In practice non-compliance will probably be notified by the MLRO.
I have to ask the question – why doesn’t the Registrar already know where the blanks are and why is there a requirement to notify these when they ought to be obvious from the RBO database? Answers on a postcard please……..?
For more about these obligations, see our AML Policies, Controls & Procedures Manual for 2021.
The Manual contains all the latest requirements relevant to accountants contained in the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Acts 2010 to 2021 now fully in force. Future blogs will look at various parts of the new and existing provisions of this legislation.
For more blogs please visit this link and for our publications and manuals and services click here.
by John McCarthy Consulting Ltd. | May 19, 2021 | Blog, News
In last week’s blog we alerted readers to the two types of anomaly that can occur on the Register of Beneficial Ownership:
- A discrepancy – there is an error on the Beneficial ownership Register; or
- Non-compliance – the Beneficial Ownership details on the register are blank (we believe this to be the case for approximately 20% of obliged entities).
Regulation 20 (3) of SI 110/2019 provides for discrepancies and non-compliance to be reported to the Registrar of Beneficial Ownership by a ‘designated person’(accountants among certain others) or a ‘competent authority/relevant person’ (e.g. Garda, Central Bank and regulatory bodies).
This week we will look at the steps required to notify a discrepancy where accountants and similar ‘designated persons’ must use a Form DN2 to make the formal notification.
There are three basic steps to follow:
- The ‘designated person’ must appoint RBO Liaison Officer(s) who will be responsible for coordinating and authenticating reports of discrepancies to the Registrar on behalf of the ‘designated person’ and liaising with the RBO on day-to-day operational matters.
Liaison Officers can be appointed using a BEN3A Form which can be obtained by sending an e-mail to discrepancies@rbo.gov.ie
- Upon receipt of the completed BEN3A, the RBO will provide the appointed RBO Liaison Officer(s) with a DN2 form and details on how to upload the DN2 to the RBO ShareFile Account (used for data protection reasons).
- The RBO Liaison Officer can then upload the DN2 to the ‘designated person’s’ secure folder in the RBO ShareFile Account.
Only a ‘designated person’ as defined in Section 25, Criminal Justice (Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing) Act, 2010 (as amended), is entitled to report a discrepancy to the Registrar. This is usually the Money Laundering Reporting Officer.
Please note that making the notification may not be the end of your responsibilities. Depending on the circumstances there may be additional reporting duties for the accountant to consider. Where the discrepancy looks less than innocent, perhaps even suspicious, or it may be linked to some other forms of non-compliance by the same entity or persons connected with that entity , the accountant may need to make further reports to relevant authorities.
For more on these obligations, see our latest publication, the AML Policies, Controls & Procedures Manual for 2021.
The Manual contains all the latest requirements relevant to accountants contained in the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Acts 2010 to 2021 now fully in force. Future blogs will look at various parts of the new and existing provisions of this legislation.
For more blogs please visit this link and for our publications and manuals and services click here.
by John McCarthy Consulting Ltd. | May 17, 2021 | Blog, News
The Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Acts 2010 to 2021 contains the latest list of new responsibilities on ‘designated persons’ (accountants among others) to corroborate the beneficial ownership details of client entities being taken on. Incidentally, the Law Reform Commission has published the consolidated version of this legislation and its available at this link.
Prior to the establishment of a business relationship with a customer, a designated person is required to ascertain that information concerning the beneficial ownership of a customer is entered in the relevant beneficial ownership register.
This register is available at different websites depending on the type of entity in question:
A designated person must not engage in a business relationship until the beneficial ownership information is obtained, unless the designated person is a financial institution. A financial institution may open an account ahead of obtaining the information but cannot allow any transactions to occur.
Where the beneficial owner is recorded as being a senior managing official, a designated person will be required to verify the identity of that person, keep records of the steps taken and record any difficulties encountered in the verification process. See more on this responsibility below.
There are two types of anomaly that a designated person must report to the relevant registration authority, being:
- A discrepancy – there is an error on the Beneficial ownership Register; or
- Non-compliance – the Beneficial Ownership details on the register are blank (we believe this to be the case for approximately 20% of obliged entities).
We will explain these obligations in more detail in the coming weeks. We have been led to understand that, as part of their AML Procedures, banks are checking the RBO register, before opening bank accounts for customers.
For the latest details on these obligations, see our AML Policies, Controls & Procedures Manual for 2021.
The Manual contains all the latest requirements relevant to accountants contained in the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Acts 2010 to 2021 now fully in force. Future blogs will look at various parts of the new and existing provisions of this legislation.
For more blogs please visit this link and for our publications and manuals and services click here.
