AML/CTF Regulatory Body in Dominican Republic
01
The Dominican Republic Government has a Committee against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing. The Committe is a collegiate body responsible for the efficient operation of the system regarding prvention, detection, control and combat of money laundering and financing of terrorism. The following governmental agencies are considered competent authorities:
- Public Ministry
- Financial Analysis Unit (UAF), attached as a unit of the Ministry of Finance
- National Directorate for Drug Control
- Monetary Board
- General Directorate of Internal Taxes
- General Directorate of customs
- Directorate of Casinos and Gaming
- Cooperative Development and Credit Institute
- The following Superintendents: Insurance, Banks, Securities, Pension Fund, Private Security.
Additionally, any authority to which regulatory or supervisory power is attributed or an activity or economic sector subject to AML/CFT law, is considered a competent authority.
02
The Financial Analysis Unit (UAF)
The Financial Analysis Unit (UAF) is an autonomous entity that exercises the technical secretary of the National Committee against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing, attacheed as a unit of the Ministry of Finance. The main task of the UAF is to analyse, identify and submit financial analysis reports to the Public Ministry regarding possible infractions of money laundering, previous infractions and the financing of terrorism.
How to comply with AML/CFT regulations in Dominican Republic
Financial and non-financial regulated entities are obligated to constantly evaluate and intensify their compliance efforts against money laundering and terrorist financing activities. For those entities who don't have a compliance program in place they will need to develop one which should include the items mentioned below. For entities that have a compliance program, they will need to review that it complies with the list below. In both cases, programs should ensure training, sufficiently robust policies, procedures and controls.
To comply with AML/CFT regulations in the Dominican Republic, all regulated parties should adopt, develop and execute a compliance program focused on a risk based approach, with policies and procedures that include:
- Evaluation of money laundering and terrorist financing risks
- Capability to manage and mitigate risk
- Client due diligence or enhanced due diligence
- Continued monitoring
- Maintenance of transaction registries
- Designation of a compliance officer with determined functions and responsibilities. The Compliance Officer will serve as the liaison between the obligated subject and the UAF
- Report unusual transactions to the Financial Analysis Unit
What are my AML/CTF reporting obligations?
In the Dominican Republic, regulated entities must report Suspicious Operations to the UAF within five business days after the transaction occurred or was attempted.
Suspicious Operations are defined as those trasactions carried out or not, complex, unusual, significant, as well as all the patterns of unusual transactions or non-significant but periodic transactions that do not have an obvious economic or legal basis, or that generate a suspicion of being involved in money laundering, some preceding offence or in the financing of terrorism.
According to this, the UAF has published a guide to Obliged Subjects that allows entities to categorise the operations that need to be examined more closely in order to determine if they should report a suspicious activity, based on operating experience. Each Regulatory Sector establishes a series of assumptions indicative of characteristics of transactions or operations that can be considered suspicious.