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There is no draft legislation available to the public yet. The handling of the (pre-)draft statute was interrupted because the process of forming a new government broke down. In the recent past there were some preliminary discussions regarding the implementation of the Third Directive between the Belgian Financial Processing Unit (CTIF-CFI) and the bar associations, but there is no text available regarding these discussions.

It is expected that the new legislation, when it comes into force, will include a type of "client acceptance policy", whereby the risk profile of clients can be evaluated on the basis of a Q&A form designed by the individual law firms. Then, the CDD requirements can be made more severe or more flexible depending on the specific client. Relevant factors may include nationality, corporate form, activity, etc. of the client. It is also anticipated that larger law firms will be required to appoint a compliance officer for ML who will have to report to the authorities on a regular basis.

For detailed information on the Belgian Constitutional Court’s decision of 23 January 2008, including information on reporting suspicious activities, please refer to the full page on Belgium under “Regions” on this website.

• Legal entities dealing with health-security (companies which provide health insurance services), and
• Persons and legal entities whose activities involve the trade of goods through cash payments whereby the price of the deal exceeds 30,000 BGL (approx. 15,000 EUR);

The Third Directive was implemented through enactment of the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering Activities Law of 2007 (N. 188(I)/2007)

The Third Directive was implemented by Act no. 253/2008 Coll., “On Certain Measures Against Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism”, which became effective as of 1 September 2008.

This Act includes, among others things, the obligation to identify customers (for transactions of EUR 1000 or more), customer due diligence (as it is defined in the Third Directive), identification of beneficial owners and enhanced due diligence for politically exposed persons (as it is defined in the Third Directive).

The Third Directive was implemented in Denmark by the new Act on Measures to Prevent Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (MLA), on 27 February 2006 and came into effect on March 1, 2006. [1]

The new MLA, inter alia, addresses areas such as beneficial ownership and enhanced and simplified CDD and introduces elements of a risk-based approach.

On 19 December 2007, the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act 2007 implemented the Third EU Money Laundering Directive.

The Third Directive has been implemented by “The Act on Preventing and Clearing Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism”.

As of 10 June 2008, the French Parliament had passed a bill, the Law on the Modernization of the Economy, which would implement the Third Directive. The law will go before the French Senate on June 30 and Amendment 517, which deals with the Third EU Directive, is expected to be passed sometime in July.[4]

As of 5 August 2008, Law No. 3691 successfully implemented the Third EU Money Laundering Directive. Law No. 3691 was published the Official Government Gazette (Issue 1, No. 186).

The Third Directive was implemented in Hungary on 17 December 2007 by the new Act CXXXVI On the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (“the AML Law”). The AML Law has also transposed Directive 2006/70/EC regarding the definition of “politically exposed person” and the technical criteria for simplified customer due diligence procedures and for exemption on grounds of financial activity conducted on an occasional or very limited basis, and Regulation (EC) No 1781/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 November 2006 regarding transfers of funds.

The Third Directive was fully implemented in Lithuania by the Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, which entered into force on 24 January 2008.

The new law enhances the procedures for client identification and verification and increases the list of institutions that are responsible for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, extending the competence of those institutions.

The third EU money laundering directive was transposed in Luxembourg by the law of 17 July 2008 implementing the directives 2005/60/CE and 2006/70/CE (Loi du 17 Juillet 2008 portant transposition de la directive 2005/60/CE du Parlement européen et du Conseil du 26 octobre 2005 relative à la prévention de l’utilisation du système financier aux fins du blanchiment de capitaux et du financement du terrorisme).

The New Law was published in the Memorial A n° 106 of 23 July 2008 and has entered into force three days later (on the 26 July 2008).

The Third Directive was implemented through the new law “Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations, 2008”.

In September 2008 the Ministry of Finance informed that the legislative procedure regarding the implementation of the Third Directive into the Polish legal system is still ongoing. This also relates to bringing Polish law in line with the 2006/70/EC Directive which lays down, inter alia, implementing measures for the Third Directive. The implementation shall be introduced by the “Act on Counteracting the Introduction of Property Values Originating from Illegal or Undisclosed Sources to Financial Transactions and on Counteracting the Financing of Terrorism and Amending the Penalty Code”. The amended law is planned to be re-named as the “Act on Counteracting Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism”.

Moreover, the President of National Bank of Poland, the Minister of Infrastructure, the Minister of Interior and Administration, the Chief of the European Integration Committee and the Minister of Justice suggested new amendments to the aforementioned piece of legislation in August 2008. The potential changes are currently subject to intense consultations with the Polish Government’s European Committee. The new anti-money laundering law will further be placed on the Polish Parliament’s agenda once the consultation process is completed. As consequence, necessary legislative steps will probably postpone the implementation of the 2005/60/EC Directive until 2009.

The Third EU Directive was fully implemented by the Governmental Emergency Ordinance no. 53/2008, published in the Official Monitor no. 333/30.04.2008) and Government Decision no. 594/2008, published in the Official Monitor no. 444/13.06.2008.

Act No. 297/2008 Coll. on Protection against Money Laundering and on Protection against Terrorist Financing and on Amendments and Supplements of Certain Acts (the “AML Act”), implementing the Third Directive became effective as of September 1, 2008.

In line with the Third Directive, the AML Act imposes on the subjects covered thereby (including advocates and notaries public in certain cases) a number of obligations including inter alia the obligation to identify and verify the identity of customers and beneficial owners, where applicable, to perform customer due diligence (or simplified/enhanced customer due diligence as the case may be), as well as the obligations concerning suspicious transactions and record keeping. In respect of the advocates and notaries public, the AML Act also provides for certain exceptions to the reporting and disclosure obligations imposed thereby.

The Republic of Slovenia fully implemented the Third Directive through the Law on the Prevention on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (“ZPPDFT”, Zakon o preprecevanju pranja denarja in financiranja terorizma, Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia No. 60/07 of 2 July 2007). Some provisions of the new law came into force on 21 July 2007, while the Law as a whole came into force on 21 January 2008. The majority of the requirements of the Third Directive (such as CDD, maintaining records and statistical information, supervision and international cooperation) were previously introduced in the amended Law on Money Laundering from 1994. The new law implements the Third Directive in full.

The law will be complemented by twelve executive regulations (primarily dealing with gathering data and client treatment). Eight of these regulations were mandatory and have been in force since the end of January 2008. The other four are optional and are currently being prepared by the Ministry of Finance.

The National Commission of Inquiry on Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, appointed by the Swedish Government, and with which the Swedish Bar Association has met to underline the important issues from a lawyer's perspective, has issued a report setting out its conclusions on how the Third Directive should be implemented. The Swedish Bar Association and other stakeholders have submitted their comments on the Commission's conclusions as part of the legislative referral process. At present these comments and the Commission's conclusions are being processed by the Swedish Government, and then a legislative proposal will be drawn up.

According to the present timetable, a legislative proposal will be ready for examination by the Swedish Council on Legislation during the summer 2008 and a Government Bill will be brought before the Swedish Parliament in early autumn 2008.

The Third Directive was transposed into national law on 1st August 2008 when the Act on Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (Wet ter voorkoming van Witwassen en Financieren van Terrorisme, (WWFT)) entered into force.

Through the WWFT, the provisions of the Third Money Laundering Directive (2005/60/EG) and the ‘Implementation Directive’ (2006/70/EG) were transposed into national law. As a result the former Financial Services Identification Act (Wet identificatie bij financiële dienstverlening (WID)) and the Disclosure of Unusual Transactions Act (Wet melding ongebruikelijke transacties (MOT)), were combined.

In addition, an implementation decree (Uitvoeringsbesluit Wet ter voorkoming van Witwassen en Financieren vam Terrorisme) and an implementation regulation (Uitvoeringsbesluit Wet ter voorkoming van Witwassen en Financieren van Terrorisme) were implemented on 1 August 2008,, holding (i.a.) reporting indicators, and indicating which documents can be used for client identification purposes.

The Third Directive has been implemented by the Money Laundering Regulations 2007, which entered into force on 15 December 2007.

Additionally, the Government has published an anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing strategy document that sets out how the challenges will be met over the next five years. It builds on the previous anti-money laundering strategy document, which was published by Treasury Ministers in October 2004.[6]