What are the obligations of reporting entities ?

For more information the obliged entities are requested to also refer to the text of the Law and the regulations published by their respective supervisory authorities.

Organisation and internal control

Obliged entities shall develop and implement policies, procedures and internal control measures that are efficient and commensurate with their nature and size:

1° in order to comply with the provisions of this Law and its implementing Decrees and Regulations and the implementing measures for Directive 2015/849, and to mitigate and effectively manage the risks identified in this regard at European Union, at Belgian level and by the obliged entity itself.

2° in order to comply, where appropriate, with the provisions of the European Regulation on transfers of funds;

3° in order to comply with binding provisions on financial embargoes.

These measures, which are described in detail in Articles 8 to 18 of the Law, include developing policies, procedures and internal control measures with regard to risk management models, customer acceptation, due diligence regarding customers and transactions, reporting of suspicions, retaining of documents and records, internal control, as well as managing compliance with the obligations laid down in this Law and its implementing Decrees and Regulations, the European Regulation on transfers of funds and the restrictive measures and binding provisions on financial embargoes; designating one or more individuals to ensure implementation of these policies, procedures and internal control measures and awareness-raising of staff of the obliged entity and, where appropriate, of its own agents of distributors, for the ML/TF risks and the training of these persons regarding measures for mitigating such risks.

Due diligence measures

The due diligence measures include:

- identifying and verifying the identity of customers and, where appropriate, of their agent(s), their beneficial owner(s), as well as the beneficiaries of life insurance policies (Article 21-33); and

- assessing the characteristics of the customer and the purpose and intended nature of the business relationship or of occasional transaction (Article 34); and

- exercise ongoing due diligence with regard to the business relationships and transactions (Article 35-36).

The due diligence measures shall be based on an individual ML/FT risk assessment, taking into account the characteristics of the customer and of the business relationship or the transaction concerned.

Moreover, this individual risk assessment shall take into account:

- the overall risk assessment referred to in Article 16, first subparagraph, of the Law aimed at identifying and assessing the ML/TF risks the obliged entity faces, taking into account the characteristics of its customers, products, services or transactions it provides, the countries or geographical areas involved, and the distribution channels it uses, as well as the variables and factors referred to in Annex I of the Law, indicative factors of potentially lower and higher risk situations set out respectively in Annex II and III of the Law;

- the relevant findings of the report (Supranational Risk Assessment) drawn up by the European Commission in accordance with Article 6 of Directive 2015/849;

- the national ML risk assessment and the national TF risk assessment which were produced by coordinating bodies pursuant to Article 68 of the Law, each in its own ambit;

- as well as all other relevant information at the obliged entity’s disposal.

Depending on this assessment the obliged entities shall take enhanced due diligence measures or they may apply simplified due diligence measures if they identify cases of low risk.

Obligations with regard to identification and identification verification

Who must be identified?

In accordance with Articles 21 to 24 of the Law, the obliged entities shall identify and verify the identity of the following 4 categories of persons:

- customers (Article 21);

- where appropriate, the agent(s) of customers (Article 22);

- where appropriate, the beneficial owner(s) of customers, and the beneficial owner(s) of the agents of customers (Article 23); and

- without prejudice to Articles 21 to 23, the obliged entities referred to in Article 5, § 1, 4° to 22°, shall identify and verify the identity of the beneficiaries of life insurance policies. Where appropriate, the obliged entities referred to in the first subparagraph shall identify and verify the identity of the beneficial owner(s) of the beneficiaries of the life insurance policies concerned. In that case, the provisions of Article 23 shall apply.

The obligation to identify the beneficial owner(s) of the customer and of the customer(s) agent(s) shall not apply if the customer, the customer’s agent or a company that controls the customer or the agent is a company listed on a regulated market within the meaning of Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 on markets in financial instruments and amending Directive 2002/92/EC and Directive 2011/61/EU, in a Member State, or on a regulated market in a third country where the listed company is subject to legal provisions that are equivalent to those laid down in the aforementioned Directive and that in particular impose disclosure requirements with regard to the shareholdings in the company concerned that are equivalent to those provided for in European Union Law.

When must the identification and the verification take place?

Obliged entities shall identify and verify the identity of customers:

1° who establish a business relationship with them;

2° who, outside the framework of a business relationship referred to in 1°, occasionally carry out:

a) one or more transactions which appear to be linked amounting to a total of EUR 10 000 or more; or

b) without prejudice to the obligations laid down in the European Regulation on transfers of funds, one or more credit transfers or transfers of funds within the meaning of that Regulation that appear to be linked and that amount to a total of more than EUR 1 000, or regardless of the amount if the obliged entity receives the funds concerned in cash or in the form of anonymous electronic money.

3° when, in cases other than those referred to in 1° to 2° above, there is a suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing;

4° with regard to whom there are doubts regarding the veracity or accuracy of the data that was previously obtained in order to identify them.

Exception for transfers of funds of less than EUR 1000

For the purposes of the above-mentioned identification measures, a transfer of funds carried out in Belgium on the payment account of a beneficiary shall not be considered a credit transfer or a transfer of funds within the meaning of the European Regulation on transfers of funds if each of the following conditions is met:

i) the account concerned only enables payment of the price for the provision of goods or services;

ii) the payment service provider of the beneficiary is an obliged entity;

iii) the payment service provider of the beneficiary is able to trace, by means of a unique transaction identifier and through the beneficiary, the person who has entered into an agreement with the beneficiary for the provision of goods and services; and

iv) the amount of the transfer of funds does not exceed EUR 1 000.

Operators of games of chance

The operators of games of chance referred to in Article 5, § 1, 33°, without prejudice to the provisions referred to in points 3° and 4° above, who perform a transaction which consists of the wagering of a stake or, if the customer has yet to be identified and his identity yet to be verified, the collection of winnings amounting to EUR 2 000 or more, regardless of whether the transaction is performed in a single operation or in several operations that appear to be linked.

Transactions shall be deemed to be linked if they are performed by a single person, pertain to a single transaction of the same nature, have the same or a similar goal and are performed in the same place, regardless of whether these transactions are carried out simultaneously or at regular intervals.

Identification and identity verification time

The identification and verification of the identity of customers and their beneficial owners shall take place before entering into a business relationship with their customers or carrying out occasional transactions.

The identification and verification of the identity of agents shall take place before these agents exercise their power to make binding agreements on behalf of customers that they represent.

In the case of life insurance policies, the obliged entities shall fulfil their obligation to identify the beneficiaries as soon as the latter have been designated or identified. They shall fulfil their obligation to verify the identity of the said beneficiaries no later than at the time of the pay-out. In the case of assignment, in whole or in part, of a life insurance policy to a third party, obliged entities aware of the assignment shall identify the beneficiary of the policy concerned at the time of the assignment to the natural or legal person or legal arrangement receiving for its own benefit the value of the policy assigned.

In special circumstances referred to in Article 31 of the Law, the verification of the identity may take place during the business relationship.

Required information for identification

The obliged entities shall collect relevant information on these persons that enables the entities to distinguish them from any other person with reasonable certainty.

The relevant information is:

1° where the identification obligation pertains to a natural person: his last name, first name, date and place of birth and, to the extent possible, address;

2° where the identification obligation pertains to a legal person: his corporate name, registered office, the list of his directors and the provisions governing the power to make binding agreements on behalf of the legal person;

3° where the identification obligation pertains to a trust or a similar legal arrangement: its corporate name, the information referred to in 1° or in 2° regarding its trustee(s), its founder(s) and, where appropriate, its protector(s), as well as the provisions governing the power to make binding agreements on behalf of the trust or similar legal arrangement.

By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, 1°:

1° if the identification obligation pertains to a natural person in his capacity as beneficial owner, his date and place of birth shall be identified to the extent possible;

Identifying the beneficial owners in accordance with the first paragraph includes taking reasonable measures to understand the ownership and control structure of the customer or of the agent who is a company, a legal person, a foundation, fiducie, trust or a similar legal arrangement.

2° where the identification obligation pertains to natural persons in their capacity as beneficial owners of a foundation, a(n) (international) non-profit organisation, a fiducie or a trust or a similar legal arrangement that appoints its beneficiaries based on their special characteristics or the specific category to which they belong, the obliged entity shall collect sufficient information on the characteristics or category concerned in order to be able to identify the natural persons who are beneficial owners at the time of the exercise of their vested rights or at the time of the pay-out.

By way of derogation from points 1° to 3°, if the identification obligation pertains to the beneficiary of a life insurance policy:

1° where the beneficiary of the policy is designated by name, the obliged entity shall collect information on the first and last name or the corporate name of the beneficiary;

2° where the beneficiary of the policy is designated by his or its characteristics, by category or by other means, the obliged entity shall collect sufficient information on this beneficiary to ensure that it is able to determine the identity of this beneficiary at the time of the pay-out.

The obliged entity may reduce the amount of information it collects if the individual risk assessment shows that the risk associated with the customer and with the business relationship or with the transaction is low. The collected information must however remain sufficient in order to make it possible to distinguish the person concerned from any other person with reasonable certainty.

If the individual risk assessment shows that the risk associated with the customer and with the business relationship or with the transaction is high, the obliged entity shall pay particular attention to ensure that the information it collects for the identification of customers enables it to conclusively distinguish the person concerned from any other person, and if necessary, it shall collect additional information for this purpose.

Verification of identification data of persons referred to in Articles 21 to 24 of the Law

Whereas the obligation to identify the persons referred to in Articles 21 to 24 is aimed at collecting all relevant information on these persons enabling them to distinguish them from any other person with reasonable certainty, taking into account the risk level identified, the identification verification is aimed at checking all or part of the identification data collected against one or more supporting documents or reliable and independent sources of information which enable them to confirm and verify these data, in order to have a sufficient degree of certainty that they know the persons concerned, taking into account the identified risk level.

The obliged entity may verify a smaller amount of information if the individual risk assessment conducted shows that the risk associated with the customer and with the business relationship or with the transaction is low. However, a sufficient amount of information must be verified in order to enable the obliged entity to have a sufficient degree of certainty as to its knowledge of the person concerned.

If the risk is high, the obliged entity shall verify all the information it collected and it shall pay particular attention to ensure that the documents and sources of information it uses to verify this information enable it to have a high degree of certainty as to its knowledge of the person concerned.

Characteristics of the customer and of the purpose and nature of the business relationship or of the occasional transaction

Obliged entities shall collect information on the characteristics of the customer and the purpose and nature of the business relationship or of the intended occasional transaction.

In particular, they shall ensure that they possess the information necessary for the implementation of the customer acceptance policy, for the application of the ongoing due diligence requirements with regard to the business relationships and transactions and for the specific enhanced due diligence requirements.

This information shall be obtained at the latest when the business relationship is established or the occasional transaction is carried out. The measures taken for this purpose shall be proportionate with the risk level identified.

Electronic money companies may, based on an appropriate ML/FT risk assessment that demonstrates a low ML/FT risk, derogate from these obligations if the following risk mitigation conditions listed below are met:

If obliged entities are unable to fulfil their obligations, they may neither establish a business relationship with nor carry out a transaction, especially a transaction through a bank account, for the customer. Moreover, they shall terminate any already established business relationship. The obliged entities shall examine whether the causes of the inability to fulfil the obligations could raise ML/FT suspicions and whether CTIF-CFI should be notified.

Electronic money

Obliged entities that issue electronic money may, based on an appropriate ML/FT risk assessment that demonstrates a low ML/FT risk, derogate from the obligations regarding the identification and verification of the identity of the customers and their beneficial owner(s) in the course of their business related to the issuance of electronic money, if the following risk mitigation conditions are met:

1° the payment instrument is not reloadable or can only be used in Belgium to make payments up to a maximum monthly limit of EUR 250;

2° the maximum amount stored electronically does not exceed EUR 250;

3° the payment instrument is used exclusively to purchase goods or services;

4° the payment instrument cannot be funded with anonymous electronic money;

5° the electronic money issuer concerned carries out sufficient monitoring of the transactions or business relationship to enable the detection of unusual or suspicious transactions.

The obligation to identify and verify the identity shall remain when an amount exceeding EUR 100 is redeemed or withdrawn in cash.

Non-compliance with the obligation to identify and verify the identity

If the obliged entities cannot fulfil their obligations to identify and verify the identity of a customer, his agents or his beneficial owners within the time limits, they may neither establish a business relationship with nor carry out a transaction for that customer. Moreover, they shall end any already established business relationship. They shall also examine whether the causes of the inability to fulfil the obligations referred to in the first subparagraph could raise ML/FT suspicions and whether CTIF-CFI should be notified.

The supervisory authorities may, by way of a regulation, authorise the obliged entities that fall with their competence to implement restrictive measures as an alternative to ending the business relationship as required pursuant to the first subparagraph in particular cases, specified in that regulation, where the unilateral termination of the business relationship by the obliged entity is prohibited by other mandatory statutory provisions or public policy provisions, or if such a unilateral termination would have a severe and disproportionate negative impact on the entity.

Ongoing due diligence

Obliged entities shall, with regard to the business relationship, exercise ongoing due diligence proportionate to the identified risk level.

The obliged entities shall carefully examine the transactions carried out over the course of the business relationship as well as, where necessary, the origin of the funds, in order to verify whether these transactions are consistent with the customer’s characteristics, with the nature and purpose of the business relationship or of the intended transaction, and with the customer’s risk profile, in order to detect atypical transactions that should be subjected to an in-depth analysis.

If obliged entities have reasons to consider that they will not be able to fulfil these obligations, they may neither establish a business relationship with nor carry out a transaction for the customer. Moreover, if they cannot fulfil that same obligation with regard to their existing customers, they shall terminate any already established business relationship or, where appropriate, apply the alternative restrictive measures approved by the supervisory authorities (Article 33 § 1, third subparagraph). The obliged entities shall examine whether the causes of the inability to fulfil the obligation could raise ML/FT suspicions and whether CTIF-CFI should be notified.

The obliged entities shall also, in accordance with the provisions of the Law on the identification of customers, keep the identification data of customers, their agent(s), their beneficial owner(s), the characteristics of the customer characteristics and the purpose and intended nature of the business relationship or occasional transaction up to date, particularly when data relevant for the individual risk assessment is modified. Updating the information of identification data shall imply, where this is relevant, also updating the individual risk assessment and, where appropriate, adapting the extent of the ongoing due diligence measures implemented.

Enhanced due diligence measures

The transactions carried out in the context of the business relationship shall be subject to enhanced due diligence until the identity of all persons concerned has been verified. Any anomaly, including the inability to verify the identity of the aforementioned persons as soon as possible, shall be analysed and documented in a written report. Enhanced customer due diligence measures shall be applied when obliged entities apply alternative restrictive measures approved by their supervisory authorities (Article 33 § 1, third subparagraph, 34 §3 and 35 §2).

Obliged entities shall also be required to apply enhanced due diligence measures in the following circumstances:

- in the context of their relationships with natural or legal persons or with legal arrangements such as trusts or fiducies that are established in a high-risk third country (Article 38);

- taking into account the risk of laundering money stemming from serious fiscal fraud, whether organised or not (Article 39);

1° with regard to transactions, including the reception of funds, that are somehow linked to a State with low or no taxes included in the list established by Royal Decree in accordance with Article 307, § 1, seventh subparagraph of the Income Tax Code 1992; and

2° with regard to business transactions that involve carrying out transactions, including the reception of funds, which are somehow linked to a State referred to in point 1°, or that somehow involve natural or legal persons or legal arrangements such as trusts that are established in such a State or that are governed by the law of such a State.

Politically exposed persons

Obliged entities that carry out transactions or establish business relationships with politically exposed persons, family members of politically exposed persons or persons who are known to be closely associated with politically exposed persons shall, in addition to the customer due diligence measures laid down in Chapter 1 (General due diligence requirements), take the following measures:

1° without prejudice to Article 8, have in place appropriate risk management systems, including appropriate risk-based procedures, to determine whether the customer, an agent of the customer or the beneficial owner of the customer is or has become a politically exposed person;

2° apply the following measures in cases of business relationships with politically exposed persons:

a) obtain senior management approval for establishing or continuing business relationships with such persons;

b) take adequate measures to establish the source of the wealth and of the funds that are involved in business relationships or transactions with such persons;

c) subject the business relationship to enhanced scrutiny.

In the framework of updating the information they keep on their customers, obliged entities shall implement measures as referred to in point 1° above, that enable them to identify which of their customers have become politically exposed persons, family members of politically exposed persons or persons who are known to be closely associated with politically exposed persons; where appropriate, a member of senior management shall decide whether or not to continue the business relationship, and the other enhanced due diligence measures mentioned above shall apply.

If the beneficiaries of a life insurance policy and/or, where appropriate, the beneficial owner of the beneficiary of such a policy are or have become politically exposed persons, family members of politically prominent persons or persons who are known to be closely associated with politically exposed persons, obliged entities shall, in addition to the customer due diligence measures laid down in Chapter 1 (General due diligence requirements), take the following measures:

1° inform senior management before pay-out of insurance benefits;

2° subject the entire business relationship with the policyholder to ongoing enhanced scrutiny.

Where a politically exposed person is no longer entrusted with a prominent public function by a Member State, a third country or an international organisation, obliged entities shall, for at least twelve months, take into account the continuing risk posed by that person and apply appropriate and risk-sensitive measures until such time as that person poses no further risk specific to politically exposed persons.

Correspondent relationships

The National Bank of Belgium, the limited company under public law bpost, the credit institutions are governed by Belgian law and the branches in Belgium of credit institutions governed by the law of another Member State or of a third country that establish cross-border correspondent relationships with a respondent institution from a third country shall, in addition to the customer due diligence measures laid down in Chapter 1 (General due diligence requirements), take the following measures:

1° gather sufficient information about the respondent institution to understand fully the nature of the respondent’s business and to determine from publicly available information the reputation of the institution and the quality of the supervision it is subject to;

2° assess the respondent institution’s AML/CFT controls;

3° obtain approval from senior management before establishing new correspondent relationships;

4° document the respective responsibilities of each institution;

5° with respect to payable-through accounts, be satisfied that the respondent institution has verified the identity of, and performed ongoing due diligence on, the customers having direct access to accounts of the correspondent institution, and that it is able to provide relevant customer due diligence data to the correspondent institution, upon request.

Obliged entities may neither establish nor continue a correspondent relationship with a shell bank, a credit or financial institution within the meaning of Article 3 points 1 and 2 of Directive 2015/849, or a credit or financial institution governed by the law of a third country, that is known to allow its accounts to be used by a shell bank.

Analysis of atypical transactions

The obliged entities shall perform a specific analysis, under the responsibility of the person appointed in accordance with Article 9 of the Law, of the atypical transactions identified, in order to determine whether these transactions can be suspected of being linked to money laundering or terrorist financing.

In particular, they shall examine, as far as reasonably possible, the background and purpose of any complex and unusually large transactions, as well as any unusual patterns of transactions that have no apparent economic or lawful purpose.

The obliged entities shall implement any measures that are necessary in addition to the general due diligence measures (Article 19 to 41).

The obliged entities shall draw up a written report on the analysis performed under the responsibility of the AML compliance officer appointed in accordance with Article 9.

If the obliged entities cannot fulfil their obligations to identify and verify the identity of a customer, his agents or his beneficial owners, their obligations to take measures to assess the characteristics of the customer and the purpose and the nature of the business relationship or of the occasional transaction or the ongoing due diligence requirements with regard to the business relationships and transactions, obliged entities shall perform a specific analysis under the responsibility of AML compliance officer designated in accordance with Article 9, § 2, to determine whether the causes of the inability to fulfil the due diligence requirements could raise ML/FT suspicions and whether the CTIF-CFI should be notified. Obliged entities shall draw up a written report on the analysis.

Reporting of suspicions

The obliged entities shall report to CTIF-CFI, when they know, suspect or have reasonable grounds to suspect:

1° that funds, regardless of the amount, are related to money laundering or terrorist financing;

2° that transactions or attempted transactions are related to money laundering or terrorist financing. This obligation also applies when the customer decides not to carry out the intended transaction;

3° other than the cases referred to in 1° and 2°, that a fact of which they know, is related to money laundering or terrorist financing.

The obligation to report to CTIF-CI in accordance with 1° to 3°, does not entail that the obliged entity must identify the predicate money laundering offence.

The obliged entities also report to CTIF-CFI suspicious funds, transactions or attempted transactions and facts, referred to in points 1 to 3, of which they know as part of activities carried out by them in another Member State without having a subsidiary, branch or other type of establishment through agents or distributors representing them there.

The obliged entities respond to the requests for additional information sent by CTIF-CFI, within the periods determined by CTIF-CFI.

In principle any information or intelligence referred to in Article 47 and 48 is reported to CTIF-CFI by the AML compliance officer.

Any manager, employee, agent or distributor of a obliged entity referred to in Article 5, § 1, 1° to 22°, and 29° to 33°, as well as any employee or representative of an obliged entity referred to in Article 5, § 1, 23° to 28°, who is an obliged entity himself, shall nevertheless personally report the relevant information or intelligence to CTIF-CFI each time when the procedure referred to in the first subparagraph cannot be followed.

The information and intelligence referred to above is reported to CTIF-CFI in writing or electronically, in accordance with its terms.

The information is reported to CTIF-CFI prior to carrying out the transaction. Where appropriate, the period of time is mentioned during which the transaction must be carried out.

In case the obliged entities are unable to inform CTIF-CFI prior to carrying out the transaction, either because it is not possible to delay carrying out the transaction due to its nature, or because doing so could prevent prosecution of the individuals benefiting from this transaction, they shall report this transaction to CTIF-CFI immediately after carrying out the transaction. The reason why it was not possible to inform CTIF-CFI beforehand should also be indicated.

When the obliged entities know, suspect or have reasonable grounds to suspect that the funds or a fact are linked to money laundering or terrorist financing, or when they become aware of funds or facts determined by the King, they shall immediately report this to CTIF-CFI.

Lawyers who, while carrying out the activities listed in Article 5, § 1, 28°, are faced with funds, transactions to be carried out or facts referred to in Article 47 are obliged to immediately inform the President of the bar association to which they belong. The President of the bar association shall verify compliance with the conditions referred to in Article 5, § 1, 28°, and 53. Where appropriate, he shall transmit the information unfiltered to CTIF-CFI, in accordance with Articles 50 and 51.

Company auditors, natural persons trainee company auditors of external companies, audit firms and any person exercising the profession of statutory auditor, external chartered accountants (experts-comptables externes) and external tax consultants (conseillers fiscaux externes), and the trainee external chartered accountants (experts-comptables externes) and external tax consultants (conseillers fiscaux externes), the external chartered accountants (comptables agréés externes) and the external chartered tax consultants (comptables-fiscalistes agréés externes) and the trainee external chartered accountants (stagiaires comptables agréés externes) and the external chartered tax consultants (comptables-fiscalistes agréés externes), notaries, bailiffs, lawyers, shall not transmit this information and intelligence referred to in these Articles if it was received from or obtained on one of their clients in the course of ascertaining that client’s legal position or performing their task of defending or representing that client in, or concerning judicial proceedings, including giving advice on instituting or avoiding proceedings, whether such information is received or obtained before, during or after such proceedings, unless they take part in the money laundering or terrorist financing activities themselves or provide legal advice for money laundering or terrorist financing purposes, or if they know their client requests advice for money laundering or terrorist financing purposes.

Prohibition of disclosure

Obliged entities, their directors, employees, agents and distributors, as well as the President of the bar association in the cases referred to in Article 52, shall not disclose to the customer concerned or to other third persons the fact that information or intelligence is being, will be or has been transmitted to CTIF-CFI in accordance with Article 47, 48, 52, 54 or 66, § 2, third subparagraph, or that a money laundering or terrorist financing analysis is being, or may be, carried out.

The prohibition is also applicable to the communications of information or intelligence referred therein to branches of obliged entities established in third countries.

Exceptions to this prohibition are listed in Articles 55 § 2 and Articles 56 of the Law of 20 July 2017.

Document retention

The Law requires obliged entities to:

- retain a paper or electronic copy of the documents used for the customer identification, for a period of ten years after terminating the customer relationship;

- retain a paper or electronic copy of the registrations, statements and documents required to precisely reconstitute the transactions conducted, for a period of ten years after carrying out the transactions;

- retain the written report prepared in accordance with Article 45 and 46 for a period of ten years.

They shall register the transactions carried out in order to be able to respond CTIF-CFI’s requests for information within the period determined by CTIF-CFI.

Restriction of cash payments

Restriction of cash payments for property transactions

The sales price of real property may only be paid by means of a bank transfer or cheque.

The agreement and deed of sale must specify the number(s) of the financial account from which the amount was or will be debited, as well as the identity of the account holders.

When notaries or estate agents find that the first and second subparagraphs are not complied with, they shall immediately inform CTIF-CFI.

Restriction of cash payments for transactions with a merchant

Regardless of the total amount, no payment or donation may be made or received in cash for an amount above EUR 3 000 of its equivalent in another currency, as part of one or several transactions that seem to be related.

The prohibition does not apply to transactions between consumers, nor to the obliged entities referred to in Article 5, § 1, 1°, 3°, 4°, 6°, 7°, 10° and 16°, of the Law as well as to other natural or legal persons when they carry out transactions with these entities.

Except in case of public auction under the supervision of a bailiff, a person who is not a consumer may not pay any amount in cash when buying old metal, copper cables or goods containing precious materials from another person, unless these precious materials are only present in small quantities and only because of their necessary physical properties.

By way of derogation from subparagraph 3, a person who is not a consumer may only pay an amount of up to EUR 500 in cash when buying old metals or goods containing precious materials from a person who is a consumer, unless these precious materials are only present in small quantities and only because of their necessary physical properties. In this case these persons must identify and register the person who presents himself/herself with metals or goods containing precious materials.

Subject to evidence to the contrary, any payment or donation in cash is presumed to be made on Belgian territory, and therefore subject to the provisions of this article when at least one of the parties resides or conducts an activity in Belgium.

Protection of reporting entities

Disclosure of information in good faith to CTIF-CFI by an obliged entity or by one of its directors, members of staff, agents or distributors, or by the President of the bar association shall not constitute a breach of any restriction on disclosure of information imposed by contract or by any legislative, regulatory or administrative provision, and shall not involve the obliged entity or its directors, members of staff, agents or distributors, in liability of any kind, either civil, criminal or disciplinary, nor any adverse or discriminatory employment action, even in circumstances where they were not precisely aware of the predicate criminal activity, and regardless of whether any illegal activity actually occurred.

Where CTIF-CFI forwards information to the Public Prosecutor, the Federal Public Prosecutor or the authorities referred to in Article 83, § 2, this does not include the disclosures received from obliged entities, in order to preserve the anonymity of its authors.

If the persons referred to in Article 83, § 1, are summoned to testify in court, they are also prohibited from disclosing the identity of the authors referred to in the first subparagraph.

The competent authorities for investigating and prosecuting money laundering and terrorist financing shall take all appropriate measures to protect directors, members of staff, agents or distributors of obliged entities who report suspicions of money laundering or terrorist financing, either internally, or to CTIF-CFI from being exposed to threats or hostile action.

Protection of staff

Each obliged entity shall ensure that its staff, agents and distributors who internally report a transaction they consider atypical, or who report that the entity is unable to fulfil the due diligence requirements, are protected from being exposed to threats or hostile action, and in particular from adverse or discriminatory employment actions. (Article 36)

The supervisory authorities shall set up efficient and reliable mechanisms for the reporting, by the obliged entity’s managers, staff members, agents and distributors or by third parties, to these authorities of supposed or actual breaches of the provisions of this Law, its implementing decrees and regulations, the implementing measures of Directive 2015/849, the European Regulation on transfers of funds and the due diligence requirements laid down in the mandatory provisions on financial embargoes.

The mechanisms referred to in the first subparagraph shall include specific procedures for the receipt of reports on breaches and their follow-up.

The supervisory authority may not inform the obliged entity or third parties of the identity of the person who submitted the report.

No civil, criminal or disciplinary proceedings may be brought against and no professional sanction may be imposed on the staff member or representative of the obliged entity who submitted a report to the supervisory authority in good faith because of the fact that he/she submitted the aforementioned report. This protection shall also apply if the report submitted in good faith mentions information that is or should have been included in a notification of a suspicious transaction.

Any adverse or discriminatory treatment of this person, as well as any termination of this person’s employment at or representation of the entity because of the reporting, is prohibited. (Article 90).