The Law on Prevention of Money Laundering No. 14/2022/QH15 has been adopted by the National Assembly since November 15th, 2022 (the “Law 2022”), replacing the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering No. 07/2012/QH13 (the “Law 2012”).
The Law 2022 has multiple important amendments and supplementations, remarkably contents related to the reporting subjects. Specifically:
1. The Law 2022 has assigned a separate article to stipulate the reporting subjects, instead of only two clauses under one article as in the 2012 Law on Prevention of Money Laundering. This demonstrates the importantance of such content.
2. The Law 2022 inherits the two main groups of reporting subjects as financial institutions licensed to carry out one or several activities as prescribed, and organizations and individuals engaged in related non-financial business lines in accordance with the law to perform one or several other activities. However, each business activity of enterprises, organizations and individuals in each target group has been adjusted.
3. The Law 2022 had a supplementation on reporting subjects. Specifically:
- Supplemented a reporting subject as financial institutions licensed to conduct the following business activities (a) payment intermediary; (b) securities brokerage; (c) securities investment fund management; and ( d) securities portfolio management.
- Removed the reporting subject as financial institutions supplying “cryptocurrency”.
4. Expansion of the scope of reporting subjects for enterprises doing real estate business
The Law 2022 is adjusted towards expanding the scope of reporting subject as organizations and individuals running real estate business; specifically: all organizations and individuals operating in real estate industry are subject to the report, except those that lease or sublease real estate and provide real estate consulting services.
Besides, the Law 2022 has also clarified the reporting subjects as organizations and individuals trading prize-winning games, including: prize-winning video games; games on telecommunications networks or internet; casino; lottery; bet. The Law 2022 has abolished the reporting object as organizations and individuals providing investment trust services, and replaced by organizations and individuals practicing in legal agreement services.
The expansion of reporting subject scope for organizations and individuals doing real estate business has set a requirement for real estate project investors and real estate brokers to strengthen their grasp of real estate information and promptly report to competent authorities.
5. Supplementation of the preventation of arising activities
In addition to the two main groups of reporting subjects classified according to the Law 2012, the Law 2022 has added a precautionary provision for activities to arise for money laundering. Accordingly, the Law 2022 empowered the Government to determine activities that are likely to be money laundering beyonds the scope of the Law 2022. However, this can only be carried out after the consent of the Standing Committee of National Assembly .
The Law 2022 shall come into force from March 1st, 2023.
Comment: