Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, 2015

Section Title Section These Regulations may be cited as the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, 2015.

Section Interpretation Section In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires— " Act " means the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2013; " Authority " means the Financial Intelligence Authority established under Part IV of the Act ; " business relationship " means an arrangement between a person and an accountable person, where the purpose or effect of the arrangement is to facilitate the carrying out of a transaction between the person and the accountable person on a habitual, regular or one-off basis; " customer " in relation to a transaction or an account, means— (a) the person in whose name a transaction or account is arranged, opened or undertaken; (b) a signatory to a transaction or account; (c) a person to whom a transaction has been assigned or transferred; (d) a person who is authorised to conduct a transaction; or (e) a person prescribed by the Authority as a customer. " customs officer " has the meaning assigned to it in the East African Community Customs Management Act , 2004; " beneficiary financial institution " means a financial institution which receives a wire transfer from an ordering financial institution directly or through an intermediary financial instit...

Section Register of accountable persons Section The Authority shall establish and maintain a register of accountable persons. The register shall be kept in electronic form or some other appropriate form determined by the Financial Intelligence Authority Board. The Authority shall record in the register details of all accountable persons registered by the Authority . The Authority shall make the register available to the public and shall post the list of accountable persons on the Authority ’s website.

Section Registration of accountable persons Section Without prejudice to subregulation (1), an accountable person shall, for purposes of registration, provide the following details to the Authority — Every accountable person shall register with the Authority , within one year from the commencement of these Regulations, or such other period as the Authority may specify. An accountable person shall apply for registration using Form 1 in the Schedule. the name of the accountable person; the physical, postal and email address of the accountable person; the status and proof of registration or incorporation of the accountable person, where the accountable person is not an individual.

Section Notification of change of registered particulars of accountable persons Section Where the particulars of an accountable person contained in the register change, the accountable person shall, within fifteen days after the change, notify the Authority . The notification under subsection (1) shall be made using Form 2 in the Schedule.

Section Money laundering control officer Section Without prejudice to subregulation (3), the following persons do not qualify to be appointed as a money laundering control officer— Every accountable person who maintains accounts for clients or customers shall appoint or designate a money laundering control officer. An accountable person shall notify the Authority of the appointment or designation of a money laundering control officer using Form 3 in the Schedule. A person shall not be appointed a money laundering control officer unless that person occupies a senior managerial position and possesses sufficient professional experience and competence in the business of the accountable person. an internal auditor; or a chief executive officer or a person of a similar rank, except where the accountable person is a sole proprietorship or a single member company. Where a person ceases, for any reason, to be a money laundering control officer, the accountable person shall notify the Authority of such fact. The notification under subregulation (5) shall be made within fifteen days after the person ceases to be a money laundering control officer. The notification under subregulation (5) shal...

Section Role of money laundering control officer Section The role of a money laundering control officer is— to act as the liaison person between the accountable person and the Authority in matters relating to coordination and compliance to anti-money laundering and combating terrorism financing; to develop and implement systems, mechanisms and procedures to ensure that the staff of the accountable person immediately report any suspicious money laundering or financing of terrorism activity; to notify the Authority , on behalf of the accountable person, of any suspicious money laundering or financing of terrorism activity. For the purposes of this regulation, an accountable person shall ensure that all staff report any suspicious activity relating to money laundering and terrorist financing to the money laundering control officer. An accountable person shall provide the money laundering control officer access to any information which may be of assistance to the officer to discharge his or her roles under these Regulations.

Section Accountable person to report suspicious activities and certain cash transactions Section An accountable person shall, upon investigating and being fully satisfied that the transaction or activity is suspicious, notify the Authority of any suspicious activity or transaction which indicates possible money laundering or terrorism financing. The notification under subregulation (1) shall be made as soon as is practicable but in any case not later than forty eight hours after the occurrence of the suspicious activity or transaction, using Form B in the Schedule. An accountable person shall file reports with the Authority on all cash and monetary transactions equivalent to or exceeding one thousand currency points in any currency, whether or not the transaction appears to be suspicious, using Form A in the Schedule.

Section Requirement of supervisory authorities to report suspicious activities Section A supervisory authority shall report to the Authority any suspicious transaction or activity that the supervisory authority is aware of, within forty eight hours of becoming aware of the activity.

Section Prohibition on tipping off Section An accountable person, a director or employee of an accountable person, shall not disclose to a person or customer the fact that a suspicious transaction or activity report or related information has been or is being submitted to the Authority or that a money laundering or terrorism financing investigation is being or has been carried out. Subregulation (1) does not preclude disclosure or communication between directors and employees of the accountable person and advocates or competent authorities.

Section Record keeping Section Subject to any written law, an accountable person shall keep and maintain records of all transactions for a minimum of five years from the date the relevant business or transaction is completed or following the termination of an account or business relationship . An accountable person shall keep all records obtained through customer due diligence measures for the period specified in sub regulation (1). Where a transaction involves a monetary instrument other than currency, the name of the drawer of the instrument, the name of the institution on which it was drawn, the name of the payee, if any, the amount and date of the instrument, the number of the instrument, if any, and details of any endorsements appearing on the instrument shall be recorded and retained. The record keeping requirements under these Regulations shall be without prejudice to any other records required to be kept by or under any other written law. An accountable person shall take reasonable steps, in respect of an existing business relationship , to maintain the correctness of records by undertaking a review every two years of the existing records, particularly for higher risk categ...

Section Independent audit Section An accountable person shall carry out periodic independent audits to assess its compliance with the requirements of the Act and these Regulations. An accountable person shall prepare a report of every independent audit carried out and a copy of the report shall, upon request, be made available to the Authority .

Section High risk countries Section For the purposes of subregulation (1), the measures shall include— The Authority may also require a supervisory authority to take certain actions with respect to countries identified as high risk including— The Authority shall identify high-risk countries in respect of money laundering and terrorism financing and shall prescribe, by notice in the Gazette , measures to be applied by accountable persons in respect of a person or customer from, or transactions involving, those countries. applying specific elements of enhanced due diligence such as obtaining additional information on the customer , purpose of transactions, nature of the business relationship and the source of funds or wealth of the customer ; obtaining senior management approval to continue the relationship; increased monitoring of transactions; reviewing, amending and if necessary, terminating of correspondent banking relationships. imposing additional reporting requirements on accountable persons; refusing the establishment in Uganda of subsidiaries or branches or representative offices of accountable person from that country; prohibiting accountable person from establishing branch...

Section Annual compliance report Section At the end of each calendar year, every accountable person shall— submit to the Authority a compliance report setting out the level of compliance with the Act and these Regulations; and the internal anti-money laundering and combating terrorist financing policy of the accountable person. The accountable person shall submit the compliance report to the Authority by the thirty first day of January of the following calendar year or as may be required by the Authority .

Section Central Bank Section The Central Bank shall, during onsite examination of a financial institution, satisfy itself that the financial institution has— sound know your customer procedures, customer due diligence measures and enhanced due diligence procedures for high risk customers and transactions; a criteria to retain records pertaining to customer identification and transactions as required by the Act and these Regulations; a criteria for verifying the identity of persons or customers in accordance with the Act and these Regulations.

Section Banks or other financial institutions to have know your customer policies Section A bank or any other financial institution shall have sound know-your customer policies or procedures.

Section Capital Markets Authority Section Where a person licensed by the Capital Market Authority acquires, either in whole or in part, the business of another financial institution, whether in Uganda or elsewhere, the acquiring person shall perform customer due diligence on the customers acquired with the business at the time of acquisition except where the acquiring person has— acquired at the same time all corresponding customer records including customer identification information and has no doubt or concerns about the veracity or adequacy of the information acquired; and conducted due diligence enquiries that have not raised any doubt on the part of the acquiring person as to the adequacy of anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism measures previously adopted in relation to the business.

Section Verification of ministries, department and agencies Section An accountable person shall verify the identity of any organ of state including a government ministry, department, agency, embassy or parastatal.

Section Failure to provide proof of identity Section A person who is unable to provide proof of identity under these Regulations, may be exempted from the requirements relating to proof of identity, but only where the accountable person is satisfied that the person or customer has an acceptable reason for being unable to provide proof of identity. Where an accountable person exempts a person or customer from the requirements relating to proof of identity, the reason for the exemption shall be recorded.

Section Proof of permanent address Section Where in these Regulations a person or customer is required to provide a permanent address, the permanent address provided may be confirmed using— utility bills; a letter from a public authority or embassy or consular office; a recent lease or rental agreement; or any information or document from a credible and independent source.

Section Sharing of information Section The Authority may make information collected by it available to any financial regulatory authority, supervisory authority, fiscal or tax agency, or fraud investigations agency or the appropriate law enforcement authority within or outside Uganda to facilitate the administration and enforcement of the provisions of the Act and these Regulations. The Authority may request a supervisory authority, a monetary or financial regulatory authority to provide it with such information for purposes of supervising and enforcing compliance to the provisions of the Act and these Regulations.

Section Supervision Section For the purposes of subregulation (1), a supervisory authority shall have the following powers and duties— Where an accountable person or any of its directors, board members, executive or supervisory management members or members of senior management fails to comply with the Act or these Regulations, the supervisory authority may— A supervisory authority shall supervise an accountable person to ensure that the accountable person complies with the requirements of the Act and these Regulations. to collect information and other data from accountable persons to enable the conduct of on-site examinations; to compel accountable persons to provide any information and to take copies of documents and files; to apply measures and impose sanctions against accountable persons for non-compliance with the provisions of the Act and these Regulations; to issue instructions to assist accountable persons in complying with obligations under the Act and these Regulations; to cooperate and share information with other competent authorities or any foreign authority concerned with combating money laundering or terrorism financing; to verify that foreign branches and majority o...