The Lending Room Are AML Legislation Compliant

It has been a couple of years now since the Anti Money Laundering legislation was put in place, and the conscientious team at The Lending Room have been diligent in ensuring their compliance with the new law, guaranteeing their clients’ best interests at all times. Anti-money laundering is a technical and difficult area of law and The Lending Room team have been at pains to safeguard their clients’ integrity.

Money laundering is how criminals disguise the illegal origins of their money, and financers of terrorism use similar techniques to money launderers to avoid detection by authorities and to protect the identity of those providing and receiving the funds. The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act) places obligations on New Zealand’s financial institutions and casinos to detect and deter money laundering and terrorism financing.

The Act ensures that businesses take appropriate measures to guard against money laundering and terrorism financing which enhances the reputation of individual businesses, and of New Zealand as a safe place in which to do business. The Act came into full force on 30 June 2013.

Anyone operating a business that falls within the definition of reporting entity under section 5 of the Act will need a Risk Assessment of the money laundering and financing of terrorism that they could expect in the course of running their business, an AML/CFT Programme that includes procedures to detect, deter, manage and mitigate money laundering and the financing of terrorism. They will also need a Compliance Officer appointed to administer and maintain their AML/CFT programme,  Customer Due Diligence processes including customer identification and verification of identity and Suspicious Transaction Reporting, Auditing and Annual Reporting systems and processes.

For those who are customers of financial institutions and casinos they may experience more stringent identity checks than they did prior to the AML/CFT Act coming into effect. However, by verifying their identity they will be helping protect New Zealand businesses from being misused for the purposes of criminal activity.

The types of documents people could be asked to provide to verify their identity may vary for different transactions or services. They may also vary across different service providers. People may also be asked for additional information about their identity or their transactions as part of a business’ ongoing monitoring of customer activity.

For further information on The Lending Room please visit the website at http://www.thelendingroom.co.nz .