Romania's AML/CTF supervisors
According to the guidelines of Law No. 129/2019 on the prevention and sanctions of money laundering and terrorism financing, the National Office for Prevention and Control of Money Laundering (ONPCSB) is the designated financial information unit with the power to gather, store, investigate, analyse, and disclose the conducted financial intelligence (AML law).
The National Office for Gambling, the Financial Supervisory Authority, and other agencies also keep an eye out for adherence to important requirements under the AML law.
How do you comply with AML/CTF regulations in Romania?
For the regulated entities, the AML law provides several obligations. These consist of:
Duty to develop standard, simplified, or enhanced customer due diligence procedures to:
- Identify the customer and confirm their identification
- Determine who the true beneficiary is and take reasonable measures to confirm their identification
Necessity to have sufficient risk management systems, including risk assessment methods, to identify if a client or the actual beneficiary of a client is a politically exposed person (PEP)
- Obligation to keep all records generated by client due diligence procedures for a period of 5 years following the end of a commercial relationship or the date of a one-time transaction
- Duty to keep supporting records and transactional information for 5 years after the end of a commercial connection or 5 years after a single transaction
Obligation to name one or more people who will oversee enforcing the AML law
Establishment of internal rules and processes that encompass at least the following components:
- Measures that customers can enforce for due diligence
- Retention guidelines that can be enforced for reports, records, and all documents
- Measures for managing compliance, communication, risk assessment, and management that are enforced internally
- Enforceable steps to safeguard the internal staff involved in implementing these policies from any threats or hostile or discriminatory behaviour.
- Regular employee training
Duty to establish an independent audit function to put these policies and procedures to the test, depending on the scope and nature of the activity
Duty to guarantee that staff members receive frequent training on AML law regulations
Responsibility to recognise and assess the risks associated with any activity that exposes entities to ML/TF while taking risk considerations into account
What are my AML/CTF reporting obligations?
Reporting companies are required to notify the ONPCSB of suspicious transactions if they know, suspect, or have good reason to suspect that:
The assets were obtained via illegal activity or have ties to terrorism financing; or
The reporting entity's information may be used to carry out the AML law's requirements.
When the objective factual circumstances relating to a business relationship or occasional transactions correspond in full or in part to the indicators of typologies of suspect transactions publicly presented by the ONPCSB, the reporting entities are also required to submit a report for suspicious transactions to the ONPCSB.
The reporting entities must also treat any business dealings or sporadic transactions with a person whose identifying information has been targeted by the ONPCSB as questionable.
Reporting of transactions that are not questionable
The reporting entities are required to disclose to the ONPCSB of any cash transactions, whether in RON or in another currency, with a minimum limit equal to 10,000 euros in RON, including related transactions.
The credit and financial institutions are required to submit reports on external transfers to and from accounts in RON or in foreign currency, with a minimum limit of 10,000 euros in RON, including related transactions.
The reporting entities must inform the ONPCSB of any transfers of monies whose minimum limit is the RON equivalent of 2,000 euros for the activity of remittance.
