St. Kitts’ Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, promulgated in 2008, prescribe identification, record-keeping, and other procedures to be implemented and maintained by any person carrying on a regulated business, in order to prevent money laundering activities.
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St. Kitts’ Anti-Money Laundering Regulations were enacted in 2008. The Regulations were adopted in accordance with section 67 of the Proceeds of Crime Act of 2000 (the Act).
Under section 67, the relevant minister may adopt regulations to give effect to the provisions of the Act, in particular in relation to governing the obligations of a regulated business activity, prescribing the compliance duties of the regulator, prescribing identification procedures, record-keeping procedures, reporting procedures, and training procedures to be maintained by any person carrying regulated business.
The Guidance Notes for the Regulations provide that, to establish identity, the following documents are considered to be the best possible, in descending order of acceptability:
– current valid passport;
– national identity card;
– armed forces identity card; and
– driver’s license which bears a photograph.
Section 4 of the Regulations deals with, among other things, the numerous situations in which to apply identification procedures in relation to business relationships and one-off transactions. A person carrying out a relevant business under the Act must adhere to these procedures at various stages, namely, before the establishment of a business relationship or carrying out a one-off transaction, during a business relationship, and where they suspect money laundering or doubt the veracity or adequacy of documents, data or information previously obtained.
Section 5 of the Regulations sets down situations in which enhanced customer due diligence is required to compensate for the higher risk of money laundering involved in the transaction. This would apply, for example, where the customer has not been physically present for identification purposes. Section 6 deals with low risk situations, where due diligence procedures may be more relaxed. Such cases involve transactions where the person whose identity is to be verified is a public authority and is acting in that capacity.
Section 8 of the Regulations deals with record-keeping procedures. A person carrying out a relevant business must keep a record consisting of:
(i) a copy of the evidence of identity obtained pursuant to the application of customer due diligence procedures or information that enables a copy of such evidence to be obtained, and
(ii) all the supporting documents, data or information in respect of a business relationship or one-off transaction which is the subject of customer due diligence procedures.
Additionally, a record containing details relating to each transaction carried out or the one-off transaction must include sufficient information to enable the reconstruction of individual transactions.
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Ira Piltz, Greenpoint Technologies