The majority of the provisions of the Act on Anti-
Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing of 1
March 2018 (hereinafter as “Act”) will take effect
on 13 July 2018. The purpose of the Act is to realign
Polish legislation with EU directives and supersede
the previously effective act of 16 November 2000.
The Act aims to improve the effectiveness of the
national system of anti-money laundering and anti-
terrorist financing. It redefines institutions bound
under the Act, referred to as obliged entities.
These entities will now be under obligation to
assess the risk of money laundering and terrorist
financing and apply customer due diligence
measures. The Act confers the status of obliged
entities upon various types of institutions, such as
banks, credit institutions, as well as tax advisors or
notaries public. The Act defines government
administration bodies as having jurisdiction over
anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing.
These comprise the Minister of Finance and the
Inspector General of Financial Information
(hereinafter as “IGFI”), serving as a minister at the
Ministry of Finance. Additional rights will be granted to IGFI, such as drawing up the national
assessment of risks of money laundering and
terrorist financing and issuing decisions on the list
of individuals and entities to which special
restrictive measures apply.
For instance, the Act includes among the obliged
entities businesses providing virtual currency
exchange services. This means that virtual currency
exchanges and entities that manage portfolios of
such currencies will be required to apply the due
diligence measures laid down under the Act to their
customers. This will enable transaction monitoring
in order to identify suspicious deals. Further, the
first ever definition of virtual currency in the Polish
legal system has been provided. Under the Act,
virtual currency is “a digital representation of
value, convertible as part of business dealings into
legal tender and accepted as a means of exchange
that can be also digitally stored or transferred, or
traded online.”
The Act lays down new responsibilities,
composition, and operating procedures for the
Financial Security Committee that supports IGFI in
its role. Further, the Central Register of Beneficial
Owners will be established as a publicly available
resource to help protect market participants. The
Act also institutes mechanisms of account blocking
and putting a transaction on hold in the event of
suspicion that money laundering or terrorist
financing may be involved.
The Act specifies more accurately the terms of
cooperation between IGFI and foreign Financial
Intelligence Units as well as Europol. The provisions
on inspection of obliged entities and administrative
sanctions taking the form of administrative
penalties, including fines, imposed upon obliged
entities that fail to fulfil their obligations under the
Act have been modified. The Act provides that the
fine imposed on legal entities listed under its
provisions will be up to EUR 5,000,000 or 10
percent of the total annual turnover.
In addition to the above fine, the Act sets forth
administrative penalties, including:
- a cease and desist order requiring the entity
to stop specific actions it engages in; - revocation of a licence or permit or striking
the entity off the register of regulated
activity.
When deciding on the type of administrative
penalty and its amount, a number of factors are
considered, including gravity and duration of the
breach, the degree of responsibility of the entity,
and its financial strength.
The Act is likely to contribute towards improved
efficiency of the system of anti-money laundering
and anti-terrorist financing and achieving a better
match between Polish regulations and international
recommendations.
MILLER, CANFIELD,
W. BABICKI, A. CHEŁCHOWSKI I WSPÓLNICY SP.K.
ul. Batorego 28-32
81-366 Gdynia
Tel. +48 58 782-0050
Fax +48 58 782-0060
gdynia@pl.millercanfield.com
ul. Nowogrodzka 11
00-513 Warszawa
Tel. +48 22 447-4300
Fax +48 22 447-4301
warszawa@pl.millercanfield.com
ul. Skarbowców 23a
53-125 Wrocław
Tel. +48 71 780-3100
Fax +48 71 780-3101
wroclaw@pl.millercanfield.com
Disclaimer: This publication has been prepared for clients and professional associates of Miller Canfield. It is intended to provide only a summary of
certain recent legal developments of selected areas of law. For this reason the information contained in this publication should not form the basis of any
decision as to a particular course of action; nor should it be relied on as legal advice or regarded as a substitute for detailed advice in individual cases.
The services of a competent professional adviser should be obtained in each instance so that the applicability of the relevant legislation or other legal
development to the particular facts can be verified.