Prevention of Money Laundering and Financial Account Registry Regulation
Preventing and combating money laundering and/or terrorism financing is one of the national priorities, leading to the adoption of various legislative initiatives.
In this regard, on February 21, 2024, Decree 64/2024, dated February 14, 2024, approving the Regulation of the Financial Account Registry and assimilated accounts, was published in the BOPA. However, this Registry is not new, as the creation of the Financial Account Registry and assimilated accounts is already envisaged in the Fourth Additional Provision of Law 37/2021, dated December 16, amending Law 14/2017 of June 22 on the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorism financing.
In said Registry, banks, payment service providers, and electronic money institutions operating in the Principality must declare the identification data of the holders or ultimate beneficiaries of payment accounts, bank accounts identified with an IBAN number, and safe deposit box rental contracts.
The referenced Regulation develops the following procedures:
- Procedure for providing the required data to the Registry.
- Terms and frequency of information declaration to the Registry.
- Registration and information update procedure.
- Access procedure by UIFAND and competent national authorities.
In addition to the premises dictated by Decree 64/2024, the same publication in the BOPA includes the Technical Manual for data declaration by banks, payment service providers, and electronic money institutions operating in the Principality of Andorra, exhaustively detailing how data declaration is to be managed.
Therefore, the Financial Account Registry and assimilated accounts can be defined as an administrative register created with the purpose of preventing and obstructing money laundering and terrorism financing.
Regarding the information to be contained, it is collected in Article 3 of the Regulation, including:
a) Regarding the account holder-client:
i) In the case of natural persons: name and surname; date, place, and country of birth; nationality; address; state or states of residence; tax identification number or equivalent, and passport number.
ii) In the case of legal persons, trusts, and other similar legal instruments: name or corporate name, trade name, legal form, date of incorporation; nationality of the incorporation of the legal entity, address of the registered office, and tax identification number.
b) Regarding the account beneficiary: name and surname; date, place, and country of birth; nationality; address; state of residence; tax identification number, and passport number.
c) Regarding the bank account or payment account: the IBAN number and the opening and closing dates.
d) Regarding the safe deposit box rental: rental contract number; safe deposit box identification number; contract start date; contract end date, and associated IBAN account number.
Access to this information is limited to UIFAND and other competent authorities designated in Article 6 of the Regulation:
a) The Public Ministry.
b) The Police Department.
c) Judicial authorities.
d) The Andorran Financial Authority (AFA).
e) The finance ministry.
However, we can observe that the approval of the Financial Account Registry Regulation is still in an embryonic stage since, for the moment, no sanction regime is established for entities that do not comply with the provisions.
Nevertheless, we can conclude that said Registry represents an important piece of the puzzle to continue evolving in the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing, regardless of whether in the future Decree 64/2024 may undergo modifications to refine its premises and unravel any potential legal gaps that may arise.
