ANNEX III AMLR – Higher risk factors
The following is a non-exhaustive list of factors and types of evidence of potentially higher risk referred to in Article 20:
| (1) | Customer risk factors:(a)the business relationship or occasional transaction is conducted in unusual circumstances;(b)customers that are resident in geographical areas of higher risk as set out in point (3);(c)legal persons or legal arrangements that are personal asset-holding vehicles;(d)corporate entities that have nominee shareholders or shares in bearer form;(e)businesses that are cash-intensive;(f)the ownership structure of the company appears unusual or excessively complex given the nature of the company’s business;(g)customer is a third-country national who applies for residence rights in a Member State in exchange of any kind of investment, including capital transfers, purchase or renting of property, investment in government bonds, investment in corporate entities, donation or endowment of an activity contributing to the public good and contributions to the state budget;(h)customer is a legal entity or arrangement created or set up in a jurisdiction in which it has no real economic activity, substantial economic presence or apparent economic rationale;(i)customer is directly or indirectly owned by one or several entities or arrangements under point (h); |
| (2) | Product, service, transaction or delivery channel risk factors:(a)private banking;(b)products or transactions that might favour anonymity;(c)payment received from unknown or unassociated third parties;(d)new products and new business practices, including new delivery mechanism, and the use of new or developing technologies for both new and pre-existing products;(e)transactions related to oil, arms, precious metals or stones, tobacco products, cultural artefacts and other items of archaeological, historical, cultural and religious importance, or of rare scientific value, as well as ivory and protected species; |
| (3) | Geographical risk factors:(a)third countries subject to increased monitoring or otherwise identified by the FATF due to the compliance weaknesses in their AML/CFT systems;(b)third countries identified by credible sources / acknowledged processes, such as mutual evaluations, detailed assessment reports or published follow-up reports, as not having effective AML/CFT systems;(c)third countries identified by credible sources / acknowledged processes as having significant levels of corruption or other criminal activity;(d)third countries subject to sanctions, embargos or similar measures issued by, for example, the Union or the UN;(e)third countries providing funding or support for terrorist activities, or that have designated terrorist organisations operating within their country;(f)third countries identified by credible sources or pursuant to acknowledged processes as enabling financial secrecy by:(i)posing barriers to the cooperation and exchange of information with other jurisdictions;(ii)having strict corporate or banking secrecy laws which prevent institutions and their employees from providing customer information to competent authorities, including through fines and penalties;(iii)having weak controls for the creation of legal entities or setting up of legal arrangements; or(iv)not requiring beneficial ownership information to be recorded or held in a central database or register. |