New Serbian Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism

New Serbian Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (“Law”) has entered into the force today, on December 25th, 2017, and is to be applied of April 1st 2018.

New Law is a result of the harmonization of Serbian legislation with international requirements and standards in the area of prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing.

The Law introduced many novelties. Some of them are:

–          Public notaries are new entities obliged to observe transactions and to undertake measures for detection and prevention of money laundering. Some other entities which continue to be obligors in terms of the Law are: banks, investment funds, brokers, insurance companies, real estate agents, factoring and tax consulting, accountants, entities which provide service of purchase, sale of transfer of virtual currency or exchange of that currency for money or other asset via Internet platform, devices in physical form or on other way, i.e. entities which are intermediaries in providing these services.

–          Definition of the official now includes the officials of the Republic of Serbia, apart from the foreign officials and officials of international organizations.

–          Trust has been recognized as foreign legal entity (since the laws of the Republic of Serbia did not recognize trust as a legal entity which may appear as a client of the obligors in terms of the Law).

–          Beside the analysis of the money laundering and terrorism financing risk which contain a risk assessment for each group or type of customer, business relationship, service offered by the obligor within its business, or transaction, the obligor has to make a risk assessment of the obligor, i.e. in relation to its entire business operations, where the obligor hast to assess its vulnerability to abuse of money laundering and financing terrorism.

–          Obligors can check and determine the identity of the entrepreneur and legal entity by direct insight into the register of the Business Registers Agency or other register

–          Compliance officer and his/her deputy do not have to take the professional exam in order to obtain license from the Administration for the prevention of money laundering as the verification of fulfillment of the requirements for their appointment.

Final provisions of the Law stipulate that:

–          Obligors shall preform activities and measures relating to the prevention of money laundering and make risk assessment for the clients with whom business cooperation was established before the entry into force of the Law within one year from the day of entry into force of the Law;

–          Obligors shall harmonize their internal acts within three months from the day of entry into force of the Law.

Should you need more information or assistance in the harmonization of your internal acts, you may contact SunjkaLaw.