Insights

Many trustees/CSPs have received an email from the MFSA’s Financial Crime Compliance Supervisory function on 27 April 2020 requesting that they complete a questionnaire on Financial Crime. The communication originally required that the ‘Financial Crime Compliance questionnaire’ be completed by 15th May, 2020 (just 3 days before the new FIAU REQ extended deadline), saying that ‘Non-respondents will be subject to an escalated earlier review of their AML Control Framework’. The deadline was subsequently extended to 29th May, 2020.

Some doubts arose as to who this Questionnaire applies to and the MFSA, on request, has since clarified that it is applicable only to those subject persons who are licenced by or registered with the MFSA and require the appointment of an MLRO.

Following clarifications made to the FAQs, and exchanges with the MFSA, it has been clarified that while this does also apply to PTC’s registered with the MFSA, it only applies to those CSPs who are licensed by the MFSA and not those exempt from licensing in terms of the CSP Act (Cap 529), such as lawyers and other professionals in terms of art 3(1).

The MFSA seems to have indicated that it is only those CSPs/Trustees found on the MFSA’s financial services register that need to complete the questionnaire and that the questionnaire has been emailed to all the licenses to whom it is applicable.

The register is available at this link.