Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010

Enhanced customer due diligence — correspondent banking relationships.

38.— (1) A credit institution shall not enter into a correspondent banking relationship with another credit institution (“ the respondent institution ”) situated in a place other than a Member State unless, prior to commencing the relationship, the credit institution—

(a) has gathered sufficient information about the respondent institution to understand fully the nature of the business of that institution,

(b) is satisfied on reasonable grounds, based on publicly available information, that the reputation of the respondent institution, and the quality of supervision or monitoring of the operation of that institution in the place, are sound,

(c) is satisfied on reasonable grounds, having assessed the anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing controls applied by the respondent institution, that those controls are sound,

(d) has ensured that approval is obtained from the senior management of the credit institution,

(e) has documented the responsibilities of each institution in applying anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing controls to customers in the conduct of the correspondent banking relationship and, in particular—

(i) the responsibilities of the credit institution arising under this Part, and

(ii) any responsibilities of the respondent institution arising under requirements equivalent to those specified in the Third Money Laundering Directive,

and

(f) in the case of a proposal that customers of the respondent institution have direct access to a payable-through account held with the credit institution in the name of the respondent institution, is satisfied on reasonable grounds that the respondent institution—

(i) has identified and verified the identity of those customers, and is able to provide to the credit institution, upon request, the documents (whether or not in electronic form) or information used by the credit institution to identify and verify the identity, of those customers,

(ii) has applied measures equivalent to the measure referred to in section 35 (1) in relation to those customers, and

(iii) is applying measures equivalent to the measure referred to in section 35 (3) in relation to those customers.

(2) A credit institution that fails to comply with this section commits an offence and is liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding €5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months (or both), or

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years (or both).