Trust offices and company service providers
Trust and company service providers are obliged to report unusual transactions to FIU-the Netherlands. This is provided for in the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Prevention) Act (Wwft BES). You are required to report both completed transactions and transactions that have not yet been completed (intended transactions). This way you contribute to the fight against money laundering, predicate offences and terrorist financing.
1°. acting as a director or partner of a legal entity or company.
2°. providing an address or correspondence address as referred to in articles 12(1)(b) and 13(a) of the BES Commercial Register Decree to a legal entity or company, in combination with administrative or advisory work.
3°. establishing or liquidating, or causing to be established or liquidated, legal entities.
4°. being a trustee within the meaning of the Convention on the Law Applicable to Trusts and on their Recognition, formed in The Hague on 1 July 1985 (Treaty series 1985, 141).
b. selling legal entities or mediating in such sales.
c. using, for the benefit of the person to whom the trust service is provided, a company belonging to a group of which the provider of the trust service is also a member.
d. performing other services to be designated by order in council.
Matters covered by the activities of trust and company service providers according to the Wwft-BES are:
Providing trust services as referred to in the BES Financial Markets Act (Wet financiële markten BES).
When do I report a transaction?
You are required by law to be alert to the transactions and actions of your customers, and to report unusual transactions. As an employee of a trust and company service provider, you know what is common in your industry. You are therefore best positioned to assess whether a transaction is unusual and may be related to money laundering, predicate offences or terrorist financing. That underlines the importance of your professional judgment.
There are transactions that you should always report, regardless of the circumstances. These are transactions that meet the objective indicators. An overview of all the indicators that help you to assess transactions is given below. In addition, the general guidelines of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice and Security and the guidelines of The Dutch National Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) provide pointers on complying with the law. DNB is your supervisor and monitors your compliance with your obligations under the Wwft BES.
What indicators help me to assess transactions?
There are 5 indicators that may apply to trust and company service providers. They will help you determine whether you should file a report with FIU-the Netherlands. You must always report transactions that meet the objective indicator. For the subjective indicator, it is particularly important that you assess whether a transaction is unusual.
The literal description of the indicators is given below. Use the codes in front of the indicators when reporting an unusual transaction. If your report is based on a subjective indicator, it is important to include a detailed description of the transaction and explain why you suspect money laundering or terrorist financing.
Services referred to in section k of Schedule a to the Act.
XSubjectief01 - "A transaction that the service provider has reason to believe may be related to money laundering or terrorist financing."
XObjectief01 – "It is logical that transactions reported to the police or the Public Prosecution Service in connection with money laundering or terrorist financing should also be reported to the Financial Intelligence Unit; after all, there is an assumption that these transactions may be related to money laundering or terrorist financing."
XObjectief22 - "All cash transactions exceeding the amount of USD 5,000 or its foreign currency equivalent in which the person who has the reporting obligation is directly or indirectly involved."
XObjectief23 - "Transactions of USD 50,000 and above including the purchase or cashing by the client of cheques, traveller's cheques or similar means of payment."
XObjectief24 - "Transactions of USD 500,000 and above involving cheques, traveller's cheques or similar means of payment."
Do you believe that a completed or intended transaction meets one or more of these indicators? If so, you are legally obliged to report it to us. Reports based on the subjective indicator may, for example, concern customers who refuse to identify themselves.
Of course, there are many more types of unusual situations. More information about this is given in the practical examples for trust and company service providers. The examples will give you an idea of what to consider. They help you to better recognize unusual transactions and decide whether you should file a report.
What happens to an unusual transaction?
An institution that has reported an unusual transaction receives an automatic message, i.e. an acknowledgement of receipt. This is important in connection with indemnification. We will investigate this unusual transaction. If we declare the transaction suspicious after investigating it, it is made available to investigative, intelligence and security services. They conduct a further investigation based on their own priorities.