CYPRUS: CySEC Publishes Circular on National Risk Assessment on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing

Thursday May 9 2019

Further to Circular C292 ‘National Risk Assessment on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing’, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) published a Circular on 7^th May 2019 which informed regulated entities of the following:

1. According to the National Risk Assessment (NRA) on the prevention and detection of money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF), vulnerabilities were identified in the Securities and Administrative Service Providers (‘ASPs’) sectors, concerning the effectiveness of the regulated entities’ compliance function, the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorist (AML/CFT) knowledge of staff and the effectiveness of suspicious activity monitoring and reporting. To that effect, an Action Plan was formed on the basis of the NRA results to remedy the vulnerabilities identified and recorded in the NRA Report.
2. In particular, the Action Plan requires that additional targeted training should be provided by regulated entities to their staff, especially in the area of suspicious activity monitoring, reporting and typologies. A key feature of an effective AML/CFT framework is the implementation of a comprehensive and effective AML/CFT training regime. In particular, the regulated entities should provide to their staff a mandatory tailored training programme which at least adequately covers:

• • The legal obligations deriving from the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Laws of 2007-2018 (‘the Law’), the Directive DI144-2007-08 on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, (the ‘Directive’) and the relevant Circulars issued by CySEC;
  • Internal AML/CFT policies and procedures; and
  • Any unique ML/TF risks the regulated firms may face.

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