ISLAMABAD: The Anti-Money Laundering Act applies to lawyers and law firms, notaries, other legal professionals, accountants and accounting firms, real estate agents including brokers and dealers, builders and developers, housing authorities, and dealers in precious metals/stones including jewelers.
According to the details released by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, the FBR is responsible for ensuring that Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs) including real estate agents, dealers in precious metals and stones, and FBR-supervised accountants comply with anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism obligations.
Financial institutions, lawyers, law firms, notaries and non-FBR-supervised accountants are supervised by other competent authorities and self-regulatory bodies.
The Anti-Money Laundering Act now includes obligations that apply to the DNFBPs.
This includes lawyers and law firms, notaries, other legal professionals, accountants and accounting firms, when they provide certain services to client, real estate agents including brokers and dealers, builders and developers, housing authorities, as well as dealers in precious metals and stones including jewelers when conducting cash transactions over two million rupees.
The accounting and legal sectors are also subject to the AML/CFT, rules when they provide trust and company services for clients, the FBR maintained.
The key to an effective AML/CFT system is a good understanding of risk.
Each DNFBP must assess and document its risks by looking at its customers, business types, delivery channels and geographic exposure, and keep this understanding up to date.
This allows for resources to be targeted towards those areas that present the greatest risk for money laundering and terrorist financing abuse, in order to mitigate these risks.
Successfully implementing and executing a comprehensive compliance programme of preventive measures and internal controls will help to protect a DNFBP from being used by criminals and will ensure that the DNFBP meets its obligations under Pakistani law, the FBR added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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