Expansion of regulatory objects to make up for anti-money laundering shortcomings The
central bank releases new regulations for anti-money laundering supervision of financial institutions
□ Our reporter Zhou Fenmian
In order to enhance my country's money laundering and terrorist financing risk prevention capabilities, the Central Bank recently revised the 2014 "Financial Institutions Anti-Money Laundering Supervision and Administration Measures" (for trial implementation), and issued the "Financial Institutions Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Supervision and Administration Measures" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures") , The "Measures" will come into effect on August 1, 2021.
Money laundering methods are constantly being renovated
According to analysis by industry insiders, with the rapid development of society and economy, various crimes and money laundering activities are intertwined and permeated, money laundering crimes play a role as a counterfeit, money laundering methods are constantly being renovated, and the amount of money involved continues to rise.
All kinds of money laundering criminal activities pose a serious threat to social stability and financial security.
The money laundering case of Zeng is very typical. This case is a money laundering case involving the proceeds and proceeds of a crime organized by a triad organization.
According to reports, the defendant Zeng was the legal representative of Zhongmou Company in Jiangxi Province.
In 2014, in order to obtain the land use right of 157.475 acres of Shanmou Village at a low price, a company in Nanchang City, Yinxian, carried out real estate development. , Leading a triad organization, later sentenced to prison) for bribery, Zeng Mou helped Xiong transfer a total of 37 million yuan in bribes by providing bank accounts, transfers, and cash withdrawals.
Among them, from April to December, Xiong used the bank account of a company that he actually controlled to receive bribes transferred in 4 times by a company in the name of construction money, totaling 32 million yuan.
Later, Zeng was instructed by Xiong to repeatedly transfer the above 32 million yuan to Xiong and to withdraw cash through the bank counter, direct transfer, or transfer through Zeng's bank account, accompanied by Chen, the legal representative of Ya's company. His wife, other members of the underworld organization.
On November 16, 2016, Zeng was worried that he used Zhongmou to help Xiongmou receive and transfer 5 million yuan in bribes, and signed a false earthwork leveling and sand filling construction contract with Yinmou Company in the name of Zhongmou. The above-mentioned 5 million yuan bribes were disguised as project construction funds paid by a company from Yin to Zhong.
Judicial authorities determined that Zeng was suspected of money laundering crimes from various actions such as Zeng’s helping Xiong with large amounts of cash, frequent transfers using affiliate accounts, and fictitious contracts.
Expand the scope of supervision
According to the financial lawyer Kang Jiaxin, the "Measures" mainly include the following aspects.
The first is to clarify the responsibilities of the People's Bank of China.
Including clarification that the People's Bank of China should conduct risk assessments of financial institutions, and understand the risk status of financial institutions in a timely and accurate manner.
Clarify that the People's Bank of China and its branches implement classified supervision based on the results of risk assessment.
The second is to increase the requirements for internal control and risk management of anti-money laundering in financial institutions.
According to the relevant person in charge of the People's Bank of China, the "Measures" require financial institutions to conduct self-assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing risks, establish and improve internal control systems based on their business scale and risk status, and formulate corresponding risk management policies.
Clarify the requirements of financial institutions' anti-money laundering organization, human resources guarantee, anti-money laundering information system and technical guarantee.
Clarify the anti-money laundering internal audit requirements of financial institutions.
The third is to optimize anti-money laundering regulatory measures and means.
The "Anti-Money Laundering Supervision Reminder Letter" was added to improve on-site risk assessment measures.
Improve the applicable circumstances of supervision visits and interviews.
Clarify continuous supervision requirements.
"The biggest highlight of the "Measures" is to expand the scope of regulatory objects." said Wang Xin, a professor at Peking University Law School. In terms of regulatory objects, the "Measures" include non-bank payment institutions in addition to the original types of banks. , Internet small loan companies, and consumer finance companies, loan companies, bank wealth management subsidiaries and other types of institutions, which help to make up for the "shortcomings" of hidden risks of anti-money laundering in the financial sector.
Pan Xiuping, vice chairman of the China Banking Association, said that the People's Bank of China has an anti-money laundering bureau, which is specifically responsible for anti-money laundering work.
Judging from the reality, both large and small banks now attach great importance to the construction of anti-money laundering mechanisms.
Because once money laundering occurs, it may not only be punished, but also directly affect its settlement business, with serious consequences.
Establish a "dual-pillar" regulatory system
As early as 2003, the People's Bank of China began to undertake the function of organizing and coordinating the national anti-money laundering work, and took the lead in responsible for the anti-money laundering joint conference mechanism.
The People's Bank of China requires financial institutions and payment institutions to perform anti-money laundering obligations in accordance with the law, including establishing an anti-money laundering internal control system, fulfilling customer identification, large-value and suspicious transaction reports, customer identification data and transaction record preservation obligations, etc.
The People's Bank of China performs anti-money laundering supervision and management, large-value and suspicious transaction report collection, anti-money laundering monitoring and analysis, anti-money laundering investigations and other duties in accordance with the law, and cooperates with investigative and supervisory agencies to carry out anti-money laundering investigations in related cases.
The financial system can provide accurate financial intelligence and capital flow evidence for the detection of money laundering and related criminal cases.
In the joint fight against money laundering crimes by various departments, the People's Bank of China plays a role of assistance and prevention.
According to the relevant person in charge of the People's Bank of China, in 2020, the China Anti-Money Laundering Monitoring and Analysis Center under the People's Bank of China received a total of 2.58 million suspicious transaction reports.
People’s banks at all levels discovered and received 16,926 key suspicious transaction clues, conducted 7,804 anti-money laundering investigations, and transferred 5,987 clues to investigative and supervisory agencies; cooperated with investigative and supervisory agencies in conducting anti-money laundering investigations on 3,321 cases and assisted in uncovering suspected money laundering Waiting for 710 cases.
In recent years, the People’s Bank of China has continued to increase law enforcement inspections and established a “two-pillar” anti-money laundering regulatory system for risk assessment and law enforcement inspections. In 2020, 614 financial institutions, payment institutions and other anti-money laundering obligations will be subject to special and comprehensive law enforcement inspections. Completed administrative penalties on 537 voluntary agencies in accordance with the law, with a penalty amount of 526 million yuan; fined 1,000 individuals who violated regulations, with a penalty amount of 24.68 million yuan.
Self-laundering is included in the crime of money laundering
Wang Xin said that with the increasing development of money laundering, its hazards began to fission, separated from the single attribute attached to upstream crimes in the initial stage, and gradually escalated into a prominent problem of non-traditional security, and anti-money laundering was thus elevated to maintenance. The overall strategic height of national security and international political stability.
After a long period of practice and development, my country has established a relatively complete anti-money laundering criminal legal system.
Wang Xin introduced that, first of all, in order to implement the "United Nations Convention on Drug Control" concluded by my country, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in December 1990 set up the "crime of concealing and concealing the nature and origin of drug stolen goods" in the "Decision on Drug Control."
When the Criminal Law was revised in 1997, taking into account that money laundering crimes occurred from time to time, and was not limited to drug crimes, in order to combat money laundering crimes, Article 191 specifically set up money laundering crimes for the first time.
Among them, the predicate crimes of money laundering crimes establish drug crimes, organized crimes of the underworld nature, and smuggling crimes.
In order to punish terrorist crimes, the "Criminal Law Amendment (3)" added terrorist crimes to the predicate crimes of money laundering; in the "Criminal Law Amendment (6)" passed in June 2006, the crime of money laundering was again It is revised to add three types of predicate crimes, namely, corruption and bribery crimes, crimes that disrupt financial management order, and financial fraud crimes, thus forming the current framework of seven predicate crimes for money laundering crimes.
It is worth mentioning that in the "Criminal Law Amendment (11)" passed in December 2020, Wang Xin said that the third amendment to the crime of money laundering was mainly through the deletion of Article 191 concerning objective behavior in the third paragraph. The terms "assistance" and "knowingly" have broken through the restrictive framework that money laundering can only be constituted by other offenders, and included self-laundering in the scope of money laundering.
This series of changes, in addition to the increasing trend of money laundering crime itself, is also related to the requirements of the International Anti-Money Laundering Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
According to Wang Xin, in order to review the compliance and effectiveness of anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing work from 2014 to 2022, the FATF will conduct a fourth round for all members in accordance with the "40 Recommendations" revised and released in 2012. Round mutual evaluation.
In April 2019, the FATF announced the results of the mutual evaluation of my country. Among the 40 projects, 6 were “non-compliant” and 12 were “partially compliant”.
As a result, our country faces the arduous task of mutual evaluation and follow-up rectification.