Who are Uruguay's AML/CFT Supervisors?
The Prevention of Money Laundering Act was expanded to include all financial institutions and intermediaries on 1 July 2005.
The primary regulatory organisations that supervise the Indian financial industry and create anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulations are as follows:
01
The Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU)
Established in 2004 as a central national organisation tasked with the duty of gathering, classifying, analysing, and distributing information to law enforcement agencies and international financial intelligence units concerning suspected financial activity.
02
Coordinating Commission against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing
Its purpose is to organise anti-money laundering efforts and to tackle terrorist funding. It reports to the Republic’s Presidency Office. Its tasks include creating and implementing a knowledge network to assist public bodies in their work, as well as providing statistics and metrics to assess the system’s effectiveness on a daily basis. The Commission may recommend imposing financial countermeasures and sanctions on countries deemed to pose a high risk of money laundering.
03
National Secretariat for Combating the Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (SENACLAFT)
National Secretariat for Combating the Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism is a decentralised organisation that reports directly to the Republic's Presidency and exercises technical autonomy. SENACLAFT has the following functions allocated by the 19,574 Law:
- Develop the policies and national strategies to combat money laundering and terrorism financing
- Coordinate and implement the corresponding training programs
- Produce and publish periodical statistics referring to the performance of money laundering system
- Enforce the corresponding financial penalties
- Monitor compliance with the rules on prevention of money laundering by non-financial entities bounded by Law (namely, accountants, lawyers, notaries, direct and indirect users and operators of free zones, real estate companies, among others
04
Unit of Financial Information and Analysis (UIAF)
Created by the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Uruguay.
AML/CFT regulations in Uruguay
Under the 19,574 Law financial and non financial institutions must:
- Establish effective customer due diligence systems and monitoring programs
- Screen against Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and other government lists
- Establish an effective suspicious activity monitoring and reporting process
- Develop risk-based anti-money laundering programs
- Have Customer Due Diligence (CDD) Programs
- Identify and verify information about customers, using reliable data and information from sources
- Determine the final beneficiary's name and take fair actions to check it. The term "final beneficiary" refers to a real individual who holds at least 15% (fifteen percent) of the capital or its equivalent, or of the voting rights, or who has final authority over an entity, whether that institution is a single person, a trust, an investment fund, or some other affectation or legal framework
- Obtain information about the purpose of the business relationship and the nature of the businesses to be developed, this should be based on the risk assigned to the client, commercial relationship or type of transaction to be made
- Conduct, if possible, regular reviews of the contractual arrangement and transactions to ensure that they are compliant with the facts available from the client's expertise and the risk profile allocated to it, including the source of funds
- Report suspicious activity that might signal criminal activity (e.g., money laundering, tax evasion)
AML/CFT Reporting Obligations in Uruguay
Law 19,574 requires financial institutions and non financial institutions to submit different reports. Notable reporting obligations include:
Obliged financial subjects
All natural or legal persons subject to the control of the Central Bank of Uruguay are obliged to report transactions, which are unusual, are presented without economic justification or arise with an unusual or unjustified complexity. Financial transactions involving assets around whose origin there are suspicions of illegality must also be reported in order to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing crimes. This information must be communicated to the Financial Information and Analysis Unit (UIAF) of the Central Bank of Uruguay.