Circulaire CSSF 23/842

The CSSF has issued Circular CSSF 23/842, which covers the adoption of the revised EBA guidelines on money laundering and terrorist financing risk factors (EBA/GL/2023/03). This circular applies to credit and financial institutions as defined in Article 1(3) and (3a) of Title I of Chapter 1 of the Law of 12 November 2004 on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, as amended.
The purpose of this circular is to inform the institutions that the CSSF, in its capacity as the competent authority, applies the EBA guidelines amending the EBA Guidelines on customer due diligence and the factors credit and financial institutions should consider when assessing the ML/TF risks associated with individual business relationships and occasional transactions under Articles 17 and 18(4) of Directive (EU) 2015/849 (EBA/GL/2021/02), published on 31 March 2023. Consequently, the CSSF has integrated the amending Guidelines into its administrative practice and regulatory approach with a view to promoting supervisory convergence in this field at the European level.
As a reminder, EBA prepared dedicated amending guidelines (EBA/GL/2023/03) regarding customers that are NPOs. These have now been added as an annex to the Guidelines on ML/TF risk factors and are referred to under Guideline 2 (Identifying ML/TF risk factors – Customer risk factors), paragraph 2.7.(d) of the main body of the Guidelines on ML/TF risk factors, as amended.
The purpose of the annex is to support the professionals in their understanding of the specificities of prospective or existing customers that are NPOs. Thus, they clarify the steps that the professionals should undertake to get a good understanding of how an individual NPO is set up and operates and what factors the professionals should consider when assessing the ML/TF risk associated with a business relationship with customers that are NPOs.
The EBA Guidelines included in the annex are applicable as of 3 November 2023.