Anti-Money Laundering Course

"Customer Due Diligence and Case Studies" course (Cantonese) co-organized by our Association and Institute of Professional Education and Knowledge (PEAK) will be held on 30 July 2015 (Thursday night). Staff training not only helps to prevent and detect money laundering / terrorist financing activities, it is also one of the crucial elements in increasing one’s competitiveness.

We welcome all money service practitioners and related persons to enrol. The course only costs HK$200 for all licensed money service practitioners. Seats are limited so please apply as soon as possible. For more details, please refer to our website or call our hotline at 3176 2004

In April 2015, the "Ongoing Monitoring and Case Studies” course (Cantonese) jointly organized by our Association and PEAK. Our course instructor explained in detail the importance of ongoing monitoring and the relevant requirements related to licensed MSOs. The course enabled participants to better understand how the compliance policies can be implemented in their daily operations. Our Association will continue organize relevant anti-money laundering and practitioner courses in order to promote compliant operations and training of practitioners. We are thankful for the support from all licensed MSOs, PEAK, HKMSOS and Thomson Reuters.

Much international attention has been paid in recent years to the money laundering risk associated with providing financial and business services to those with a prominent political profile or holding senior public office. Based on the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (Financial Institutions) Ordinance ("AMLO"), all MSOs should take proper measures to identify whether any individual is a local or foreign politically exposed person. However, various MSOs reflected that they have faced difficulty when they tried to perform such identification. Our Association suggests MSOs to consider purchasing internationally approved tools for background screening in order to effectively assess and determine whether the customer is a politically exposed person or a high risk individual or entity on sanctions list. For enquiries, all licensed MSOs please feel free to call us.

Our Association noted that one of the note-issuing banks in Hong Kong, in compliance with the FATF suggestions, implemented a requirement for information of remitter and payee. Customers are required to provide name of the originator as well as name, account no. and address (including country) of the beneficiary for all cross-order payment instructions (apply to all currencies).

Our Association calls upon all licensed MSOs to understand the relevant money laundering risks when handling remittance services and formulate related measures. Besides performing customer due diligence, MSOs should also pay attention to FATF high risk and non-cooperative jurisdictions in order to abide to relevant regulations set out in the United Nations Sanctions Ordinance.

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