|
No. 23 of 2003 |
AN ACT TO AMEND |
THE FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS
REPORTING ACT |
[Date of Assent :— 31st
December, 2003] |
Enacted by the Parliament of The
Bahamas |
1.(1) This Act may be cited as the
Financial Transactions Reporting (Amendment) Act, 2003. | Short title and commencement. Ch. 368. |
(2) This Act shall come into force
on the 1st day of January, 2004. |
2. Subsection (1) of section 3
of the principal Act is amended by the deletion of paragraph (i) and the substitution
therefor of the following - | Amendment of section 3 of the
principal Act. |
"(i)an investment fund
administrator or operator of an investment fund within the meaning of the
Investment Funds Act, 2003;". |
3. Section 6 of the principal
Act is amended by the deletion of subsection (6) and the substitution of the
following - | Amendment of section 6 of the
Principal Act. |
"(6)A financial institution shall
verify the identity of any facility holder of any facility in existence prior
to the 29th December, 2000 (hereinafter referred to as "an existing
facility"): |
Provided that where an existing facility has not
been verified under this section as of the 1st day of April, 2004, the
financial institution shall notify its Supervisory Authority who shall issue
directions in writing to the financial institution in relation to that facility
and such directions shall include the power to suspend or discontinue any
further activity with the facility until such time as the verification has been
made. |
(7)In this section "Supervisory
Authority" means - |
(a) where the financial institution
is a licensee of the Central Bank, the Central Bank; |
(b) where the financial institution
is a licensee or registrant of the Securities Commission of The Bahamas, the
Securities Commission; |
(c) where the financial institution
is a licensee of the Inspector of Financial and Corporate Service Providers,
the Inspector; |
(d) where the financial institution
is a licensee of the Registrar of Insurance, the Registrar; or |
(e) where the financial institution
is not licensed or registered as set out in subparagraphs (i) - (v) of section
3(1), the Compliance Commission. |
(8)Any action taken by a Supervisory
Authority under subsection (6) shall not be treated as a breach of any law and
shall not give rise to any civil liability.". |
4. The principal Act is amended
by the insertion immediately after section 10 of the following new section - | Insertion of a new section 1M into
the principal Act. |
"Verification where offence
under Proceeds of Crime Act suspected.
|
10A.(1) Notwithstanding section 14, a
financial institution shall verify the identity of any person that conducts any
transaction (whether as a facility holder or not) through a financial
institution where the financial institution knows, suspects or has reasonable
grounds to suspect that the transaction or proposed transaction involves
proceeds of criminal conduct as defined in the Proceeds of Crime Act or any
offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act or an attempt to avoid the enforcement
of any provisions of the Proceeds of Crime Act. | Ch. 93. |
(2)Where subsection (1) of this
section applies, the financial institution shall verify the identity of the
person as soon as practicable after the financial institution has reasonable
grounds to suspect that a transaction is of the kind referred to under
subsection (1).". |