By: Norma Villalobos, Mario Costa.
Employing Agreement No. 618 dated November 29, 2021, the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic approved to grant a six-month extension for the entry into force of the “INSTRUCTION FOR THE PREVENTION, DETECTION, AND CONTROL OF MONEY AND ASSETS LAUNDERING, FINANCING OF TERRORISM AND THE FINANCING OF THE PROLIFERATION OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION PROLIFERATION” contained in Agreement No. 380 dated October 26, 2021, which was to enter into force as of November 26 of the current year. 380 dated October 22, 2021, which was effective as of November 26 of the current year.
The extension approved by the FGR does not apply to the provisions of Title II, Chapter IV, Articles 24 to 26 related to Measures on the initiation or continuity of contractual relations with clients or counterparties, which are effective as of December 6, 2021.
The extension also does not apply to the term granted by the Financial Investigation Unit and the regulated entities to prepare the technological developments outlined in articles 85 to 91, which establish a term of 6 months for the preparation of such technological developments, i.e., the referred term starts as of November 26, 2021.
The extension of the six-month term will begin on December 7, 2021, and will end on June 6, 2022, and therefore the instructions will enter into force on June 7, 2022, except for the exceptions mentioned above.
The new instructions approved by the FGR develop the obligations of the regulated entities, for the detection of unusual operations and reporting of suspicious operations that may be linked to money laundering, financing of terrorism, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as for the control and reporting of suspicious operations to the Financial Investigation Unit (UIF).
All commercial companies in general, as well as Non-Profit Associations and Foundations, are obliged to comply with the new instructions, for which the instructions develop special instructions, mainly for those that perform the activity of collection or disbursement to comply with charitable purposes, religious, cultural, educational, social or fraternal purposes, or to carry out other types of charity, must adopt the measures contained in FATF Recommendation 8 regarding the prevention of terrorist financing according to the activities, nature, size, operations, and level of risk, by the risk-based approach.
The aforementioned organizations, as well as the rest of the subjects obliged by law, must register with the FIU and have their information available to the competent investigative and judicial authorities.
Read the extension agreement published in the Official Gazette: