15th March 2024
The FIAU would like to inform subject persons that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has issued risk-based guidance to support the application of FATF Recommendation 25 (R.25) on Beneficial Ownership and Transparency of Legal Arrangements. This recommendation was adopted in February 2023.
This publication focuses on the AML/CFT transparency obligations applicable to legal arrangements, which include express trusts and other similar legal arrangements (such as fiducie, fideicomiso, Waqf and certain types of Treuhand). It is intended for all public and private sector stakeholders regulating, managing, or administering these legal arrangements. Moreover, it highlights the need to understand and assess the ML/FT risks of these instruments and the importance of obtaining appropriate, accurate and updated beneficial ownership information for these arrangements, whilst also providing methods for the verification of this information.
This Guidance on R.25, and the Guidance on Recommendation 24, published in March 2023, both focus on the implementation of the FATF standards on beneficial ownership and thus should be read conjointly.
Lastly, this Guidance on R.25 may be accessed either on the FIAU’s website by clicking here or on the FATF’s website by clicking here.