Amendment of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering is necessary

On the morning of September 30, the Provincial National Assembly Delegation held a Conference to collect comments on the draft Law on Anti-Money Laundering (amended).Comrade Thai Thi An Chung - Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation chaired the conference.

Conference scene. Photo: My Nga

The Law on Anti-Money Laundering has a structure of 4 chapters and 63 articles. The development of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering (amended) aims to overcome the limitations and shortcomings of the current law, contributing to improving the effectiveness of anti-money laundering work; building a legal system on anti-money laundering in accordance with international requirements and standards that Vietnam is obliged to implement; improving the effectiveness of the fight against money laundering crimes in particular and crime prevention and control work in general.

In her opening speech, Comrade Thai Thi An Chung - Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation said that the 2012 Law on Anti-Money Laundering was built on the basis of 40 recommendations of FATF. Since then, FATF has revised the recommendations 11 times, therefore, some provisions of the 2012 Law on Anti-Money Laundering are no longer appropriate. At the conference, delegates all agreed on the need to amend the Law.

Representatives of the State Bank of Vietnam in Nghe An province contributed their opinions on the amendment of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering. Photo: My Nga

Opinions suggest that it is necessary to re-examine the interpretation of terms, making them easy to understand, concise, and avoiding overlap with terms in other Laws; continue to review related content in a number of new-generation trade agreements to which Vietnam is a member to ensure compatibility, consistency, and uniformity; review regulations that are internalized in international standards to ensure constitutionality, legality, and conformity with institutions and socio-economic conditions.

Many opinions suggest reviewing concepts such as: "suspicious transactions". However, the volume of reports is relatively large while the regulations on suspicious signs are mostly qualitative signs, not really clear and it is very difficult to determine suspicious signs, such as: "discount rate with a value higher than normal"; "Customers convince reporting subjects not to report transactions to competent state agencies"; "Customers often exchange small denominations of money for large denominations"... Consider adjusting the concept of electronic money transfer transactions and the term "electronic means"; consider money transfer and receiving transactions where the reporting subject is the sender/receiver.

At the same time, it is necessary to clarify the criteria for determining what is considered “property derived from crime”. Based on that, reporting subjects can have reasonable grounds to suspect these activities.

Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Thai Thi An Chung concluded the conference. Photo: My Nga

Concluding the conference, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, Thai Thi An Chung, acknowledged the delegates' comments. Based on the delegates' comments, the Provincial National Assembly Delegation will receive and submit to the competent agencies of the National Assembly for review, research, acceptance, and completion of the draft Law on Anti-Money Laundering (amended) before submitting to the National Assembly.