In February 2022, the Minster for Finance signed the European Union (Anti-Money Laundering: Central Mechanism for Information on Safe-Deposit Boxes and Bank and Payment Accounts) Regulations 2022 into law.  That paved the way for the establishment of a central database of payment accounts, bank accounts and safe-deposit boxes held with credit institutions (banks, and Class 1 investment firms) in Ireland.  For more information on those Regulations, read our February 2022 AML Update here. 

Two minor changes have been made to those Regulations.  

The first change confirms that where the Central Bank asks credit institutions, once the Central Database and the Central Mechanism are set-up, to provide it with certain information in relation to an account or a safe-deposit box, that account or safe-deposit box must be held by the credit institution on or after 3 February 2022.

The second change relates to the information on beneficial ownership of an account that a credit institution must provide in response to such a request – the reference to the information required where the beneficial owner is not an individual has been removed to align the Regulations with the definition of ‘beneficial owner’ in the Fourth Money Laundering Directive (MLD4).  For the purposes of MLD4, a ‘beneficial owner’ (if there is one) is always a ‘natural person’.  

If you have any queries on the Regulations, or the AML/CFT framework more generally, please get in touch with any member of our Financial Regulation Group.

https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2022/si/445/made/en/pdf