Bulgaria’s AML/CTF supervisors
State Agency for National Security (SANS) is the primary AML/CTF regulatory body in Bulgaria. Under the provisions and regulations of the AML Act and the CTF Act, the Financial Intelligence Directorate of the SANS can gather, preserve, examine, analyse, and disclose the conducted financial intelligence.
Other authorities that monitor compliance with AML Act requirements in certain industries include the following.
How do you comply with AML/CTF regulations in Bulgaria?
Banks, financial institutions, payment service providers, insurance and reinsurance businesses, and intermediaries who distribute life risk insurance are just a few of the over 40 kinds of reporting entities under the AML Act.
Customer due diligence (CDD), the gathering and storage of information and documents, an assessment on the risk of money laundering and terrorism financing, and the disclosure of information on suspicious operations, transactions, and customers are the main duties of reporting entities under the AML Act.
You need to take the following actions to fulfil your AML compliance obligations.
Establishing an AML program
Performing KYC, CDD, and EDD (comprehensive customer verification)
Record keeping (collection of documents, data and information)
Assessing the level of the risk of money laundering
Tracking transactions
Revealing questionable activities and clients
Providing AML training for employees
Ensuring contact and information exchange at the national and international levels
You must preserve records for at least 5 years in respect to recordkeeping. If a relevant third-party processes, gathers, and manages this information, you are responsible for promptly obtaining the essential information due diligence data from that third party.
**Bulgaria complies with two of the FATF's 40 Recommendations and is largely compliant with the other fifteen.
What are my AML/CTF reporting obligations?
When there are indications of money laundering and/or the proceeds of criminal activity, you must notify the FIU before carrying out the procedure or transaction and postpone the execution of the operation or transaction.
If you are unable to carry out the identification of the client when commercial or professional relations have already been formed, you must determine whether it is necessary to notify the FIU.
