Unregistered non-financial businesses, professions face sanctions

MANILA, Philippines — Designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs) that failed to register on time are facing sanctions from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

In an advisory, the country’s sole financial intelligence unit reminded DNFBPs to register with the AMLC as covered persons under Republic Act 9160 or the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001, as amended.

“Non-registration with the AMLC may result in the imposition against unregistered DNFBPs of appropriate enforcement actions under the Enforcement Action Guidelines and/or administrative sanctions, as per the Rules of Procedure in Administrative Cases under the AMLA, as amended,” the agency said.

Section 9(c) of the AMLA, as amended, requires covered persons to file covered (CTRs) and suspicious transaction reports (STRs).

For this purpose, Section 4, Rule 22 of the 2018 IRR mandates all covered persons to register with the AMLC’s electronic reporting system in accordance with the AMLC Registration and Reporting Guidelines under the AMLC Regulatory Issuance No. 4, Series of 2021.

According to the AMLC, unregistered DNFBPs will not be able to electronically submit covered transaction reports (CTRs) and suspicious transaction reports (STRs).

“Non-submission of CTRs/STRs, knowing that such reports are required to be submitted to the AMLC, is penalized as a money laundering offense under the last paragraph of Section 4 of the AMLA, as amended,” it said.

DNFBPs include jewelry dealers; dealers in precious metals and dealers in precious stones; company service providers, person, including lawyers, accountants, and other professionals; casinos, including Internet- and ship-based casinos, with respect to their casino cash transactions and related to their gaming operations; real estate brokers and developers; and offshore gaming operators, as well as their service providers, supervised, accredited, or regulated by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) or any appropriate government agency.

The law states that covered persons are required to comply with all the requirements under the AMLA and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 (TFPSA), their respective IRRs, and other AMLC issuances.

“Covered persons shall have the duty to cooperate with the AMLC in the discharge of the latter’s mandate and execution of its lawful orders and issuances, to protect their businesses or profession from being used in money laundering and terrorism financing activities,” the AMLC said.

Global dirty money watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has given the Philippines until this month to address strategic deficiencies in its regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.

The FATF re-included the country in the gray list or list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring in June 2021 for having inadequate money laundering and counter terrorism financing controls.