Guideline on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Financing of Terrorism (For Authorized Institutions) (Revised May 2023)(same as SPM module AML-2) (PDF File, 929.3 KB)

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, HKMA, has published a revised version of its Guideline on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Financing of Terrorism (CFT) (For Authorized Institutions) based upon the coming into force of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Ordinance 2022 on June 1, 2023. The Amendment Ordinance introduces a new licensing regime for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and a registration regime for dealers in precious metals and stones (DPMS) and revises the requirements pertaining to beneficial owners and ownership verification.
The guideline generally set out the requirements of authorized institutions in relation to the identification and assessment of Money Laundering (ML) and Terrorism Financing (TF) risks of and within their institutions, the establishment of adequate monitoring systems to prevent ML and TF, the implementation of appropriate customer due diligence procedures for the verification of customers‘ identities when on-boarding new clients, the ongoing monitoring of client accounts and transactions, the reporting of suspicious transactions, and associated recordkeeping. The guideline also provides detailed explanations of AML (ML) and CFT (TF) and the governing regulations in this context in Singapore.
The revised version contains revisions throughout the entire document. Some of the key revisions may be found in the following sections and concern:
– 2.4 Institutional ML/TF risk assessment
– 4.14 Prohibition on anonymous accounts
– 4.2 When CDD measures should be carried out
– 4.4 Identification and verification of identity – beneficial owner
– 4.8.16 Simplified customer due diligence in relation to beneficial owners