Information - Services - Formalities by subjects - Security and safety - Terrorism defense - Money laundering; implementation of supervision - Dienstleistungsportal Bayern

Description

Money laundering is a process in which criminally obtained assets (e.g. through drug or arms trafficking) are converted into apparently legal assets.

The objective of the AMLA is to detect criminal assets (a legal definition of the term "asset" can be found in Section 1 (7) of the AMLA; please refer to the link under "Legal basis") derived from serious criminal acts in monetary transactions. For this purpose, it is necessary for the legal economic system to take security precautions. This also applies to measures to prevent terrorist financing.

The so-called "non-financial sector" and certain financial enterprises that are not subject to supervision by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) are subject to supervision by state authorities (Section 50 No. 9 GwG). Please refer to the item "Prerequisites" to find out which professional activities and companies are subject to supervision.

The task of the supervisory authorities is to ensure that the obligated parties comply with the statutory requirements under the Money Laundering Act, in particular with regard to internal security measures and due diligence obligations, and to prosecute and punish any administrative offences that are established with probative value.

Some of the due diligence obligations are to be complied with by the obligated companies across the board vis-à-vis all contractual partners. Therefore, they may have an impact on every citizen and consumer. The Money Laundering Act obliges contractual partners to identify themselves on request and, if necessary, to have a copy of their ID produced. Further information, e.g. on the beneficial owner, may also be requested.

To document the information collected, obligated parties are recommended to use the documentation forms available for download under "Forms". Irrespective of this, the Money Laundering Act now gives obligated parties the right and the obligation to make copies of the documents presented for identification or to record them in an optically digitized form. This means that even if the documentation sheet is used, a copy or scan must always be made.

Prerequisites

The obligated parties in the so-called "non-financial sector" include, pursuant to

• § Pursuant to Section 2 (1) No. 6 AMLA, "financial enterprises"
  
  Pursuant to Section 1 (24) Sentence 1 AMLA, financial enterprises are enterprises whose main activity consists of,
  • acquiring, holding or disposing of participations (as a rule, holding companies in the industrial sector are not obligated parties under the AMLA; holding companies which exclusively hold participations in companies outside the credit institution, financial institution and insurance sectors and which do not engage in entrepreneurial activities beyond the tasks associated with the administration of the participation holdings are not financial enterprises within the meaning of the AMLA),
  • to acquire monetary receivables with a financing function against payment (in particular, securitization transactions and cases of factoring are covered here, whereas collection activities are generally not),
  • to trade in financial instruments for their own account ("proprietary trading"),
  • financial investment intermediaries pursuant to § 34 f (1) sentence 1 of the German Trade Regulation Act (Gewerbeordnung),
  • fee-based financial investment advisors pursuant to Section 34 h (1) Sentence 1 of the Trade Regulation Act, unless the brokerage and advisory services relate exclusively to investments distributed or issued by obligated parties pursuant to this Act,
  • advising companies on capital structure, industrial strategy and related issues, and advising and providing services to companies in the event of mergers and acquisitions (in particular mergers and acquisitions advice), or
  • to arrange loans between credit institutions (money broking)
    
    The obligation also applies to branches and subsidiaries of such companies located in Germany and having their registered office abroad, unless they are already covered by Section 2 (1) Nos. 1 to 5, 7, 9 10, 12 or 13 (for example, as a credit institution).

• § Section 2 (1) No. 8 AMLA "Insurance Intermediaries"
  
  Insurance intermediaries are among the "obligated persons" of the AMLA if they act as so-called "unbound intermediaries" and, within the scope of this activity, offer
  • Offer life insurance activities with an investment purpose,
  • offer accident insurance with return of premium or
  • offer money loans and acceptance credits.

• § Section 2 (1) No. 11 GwG
  
  Legal advisors who are not members of a bar association and registered persons pursuant to Section 10 of the Legal Services Act, insofar as they provide activities pursuant to Section 2 (1⁾ No. 10 letters a to d GwG1⁾, with the exception of the provision of collection services within the meaning of Section 2 (2) sentence 1 Legal Services Act. ¹⁾ Activities pursuant to Section 2 (1) No. 10 letters a to d:
  • Purchase and sale of real estate or commercial enterprises,
  • Management of money, securities or other assets,
  • Opening or managing bank, savings or securities accounts,
  • Raising the funds necessary for the establishment, operation or management of companies,
  • establishing, operating or managing trusts, companies or similar structures,
  • carry out financial or real estate transactions in the name and for the account of the Client,
  • advise the client with respect to the client's capital structure, industrial strategy or related matters; or
  • Provide advice or services in connection with mergers or acquisitions.

• § Section 2 (1) No. 13 AMLA
  
  Service providers for companies and trusts or fiduciaries who do not belong to the professions listed in numbers 10 to 12, if they provide any of the following services to third parties:
  • Establishment of a legal entity or partnership,
  • Exercising the management or executive function of a legal entity or a partnership, exercising the function of a partner of a partnership or exercising a comparable function,
  • Providing a registered office, business, administrative or postal address and other related services to a legal entity, to a partnership or to a legal arrangement under Section 3(3),
  • Performing the function of a trustee for a legal arrangement under Section 3(3),
  • Performing the function of a nominal shareholder for another person that is not a company listed on an organized market pursuant to Section 2 (11) of the Securities Trading Act, which is subject to transparency requirements in respect of voting shares in accordance with Community law or equivalent international standards,
  • creating the possibility for another person to perform the functions referred to in Section 2 (1) no. 13 letters b, d and e.

• § Section 2 (1) No. 14 AMLA in conjunction with Section 1 (11) AMLA

Real estate agents, insofar as they commercially broker the conclusion of purchase, lease or rental agreements for real property, rights equivalent to real property, commercial premises or residential premises.

• § Section 2 (1) No. 16 GwG in conjunction with Section 1 (9), (23) GwG

Dealers in goods (persons who sell goods commercially, regardless of in whose name or for whose account they are acting), art brokers (those who commercially broker the conclusion of sales contracts for art objects, also as auctioneers or gallery owners) and art warehouse keepers (those who commercially store art objects), insofar as the warehousing takes place in duty-free zones.

Forms

Please select a location in "Localization" so that the address of the responsible authority can be filled in.

• Form, Bavaria-wide: Dokumentationsbogen zur Identifizierung von natürlichen Personen bzw. Einzelunternehmen

  Please note

  This form requires no signature. You can sent it electronically (e.g. by secure email or De-Mail) or as hardcopy to the responsible authority.

• Form, Bavaria-wide: Dokumentationsbogen zur Identifizierung von natürlichen Personen bzw. Einzelunternehmen (in englischer Sprache)

  Please note

  This form has to be signed and sent to the responsible authority. You can sign the form manually and send it by email/fax or sign the form electronically with your qualified electronic signature an send it by (secure) email. If the responsible authority has set up a De-Mail account, you can also send the form by De-Mail using an sender-confirmed message.

• Form, Bavaria-wide: Dokumentationsbogen zur Identifizierung von natürlichen Personen bzw. Einzelunternehmen (in französischer Sprache)

  Please note

  This form has to be signed and sent to the responsible authority. You can sign the form manually and send it by email/fax or sign the form electronically with your qualified electronic signature an send it by (secure) email. If the responsible authority has set up a De-Mail account, you can also send the form by De-Mail using an sender-confirmed message.

• Form, Bavaria-wide: Dokumentationsbogen verstärkter Sorgfaltspflichten nach § 15 GwG

  Please note

  This form requires no signature. You can sent it electronically (e.g. by secure email or De-Mail) or as hardcopy to the responsible authority.

• Form, Bavaria-wide: Dokumentationsbogen zur Identifizierung von juristischen Personen und Personengesellschaften

  Please note

  This form requires no signature. You can sent it electronically (e.g. by secure email or De-Mail) or as hardcopy to the responsible authority.

• Prefillable Form, Bavaria-wide: Risikomanagement: Dokumentation interner Sicherungsmaßnahmen (§ 6 Abs. 2 GwG)

  Please note

  This form has to be signed and sent to the responsible authority. You can sign the form manually and send it by email/fax or sign the form electronically with your qualified electronic signature an send it by (secure) email. If the responsible authority has set up a De-Mail account, you can also send the form by De-Mail using an sender-confirmed message.

Fees

• The supervisory authorities may charge costs (see Annex to the Schedule of Costs, No. 2.II.3) to cover administrative expenses (Section 51 (4) AMLA).

Legal bases

• Gesetz über das Aufspüren von Gewinnen aus schweren Straftaten (Geldwäschegesetz - GwG)
• § 261 Strafgesetzbuch (StGB)

  Geldwäsche; Verschleierung unrechtmäßig erlangter Vermögenswerte

• § 8a Zuständigkeitsverordnung (ZustV)

Links to more information

• Basisinformation Geldwäschegesetz (GwG)
• Nationale Risikoanalyse (NRA)
• Aufsicht nach dem Geldwäschegesetz
• Informationsportal der Zentralstelle für Finanztransaktionsuntersuchungen [Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)] der Generalzolldirektion zur Bekämpfung von Geldwäsche
• Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

  Die Financial Action Task Force (FATF) ist die wichtigste internationale Institution zur Bekämpfung und Verhinderung von Geldwäsche, Terrorismusfinanzierung und Proliferationsfinanzierung. Die FATF wurde 1989 von den G7-Staaten gegründet und ist eine eigenständige internationale Institution, die von einem bei der Organisation für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (Organisation for Economic Co-operation und Development, OECD) angegliederten Sekretariat unterstützt wird. Aktuell gibt es 39 FATF-Mitglieder: 37 Mitgliedstaaten, die Europäische Kommission sowie den Golf-Kooperationsrat. Die FATF ist zugleich die globale Mutter-Institution eines weltweiten Netzwerks, das aus weiteren neun regionalen Partnerorganisationen besteht (sog. FATF Style Regional Bodies, FSRBs) und über dessen Mitglieder sich weltweit über 200 Jurisdiktionen zur Umsetzung der FATF-Standards verpflichtet haben.

• Globales Programm der Vereinten Nationen gegen Geldwäsche - UNODC
• Öffentliches Online-Register echter Identitäts- und Reisedokumente (PRADO)

  Prüfung der Sicherheitsmerkmale von Dokumenten

• Webadressen zur Dokumentenüberprüfung

  Bekannte Internetadressen über die Echtbeschreibungen oder Fahndungsdaten abrufbar sind, Schlüssigkeitsprüfungen durchgeführt oder Ausstellungsdaten überprüft werden können.

• Unternehmensregister in den EU-Mitgliedstaaten

  Die Unternehmensregister der EU-Mitgliedstaaten enthalten i.d.R. Informationen zu Rechtsform, Sitz, Kapital und rechtlichen Vertretern eines Unternehmens.

• Risikobasierte organisatorische Maßnahmen nach dem Geldwäschegesetz
• Regierung von Mittelfranken: Bekanntmachungen nach § 57 Geldwäschegesetz

  Bestandskräftige Maßnahmen und unanfechtbare Bußgeldentscheidungen, die die Regierung von Mittelfranken im Rahmen ihrer Aufsichtstätigkeit nach dem Geldwäschegesetz erlassen hat

• Regierung von Niederbayern: Bekanntmachungen nach § 57 Geldwäschegesetz

  Bestandskräftige Maßnahmen und unanfechtbare Bußgeldentscheidungen, die die Regierung von Niederbayern im Rahmen ihrer Aufsichtstätigkeit nach dem Geldwäschegesetz erlassen hat

• Merkblatt zum Transparenzregister
• Auslegungs- und Anwendungshinweise zum Gesetz über das Aufspüren von Gewinnen aus schweren Straftaten (Geldwäschegesetz - GwG)
• Häufige Fehler bei der Identifizierung des Vertragspartners

Related issues

• Money laundering; appointment of a money laundering officer and a representative
• Money laundering; filing a suspicious activity report
• Gambling; implementation of money laundering supervision
• Terrorist financing; implementation of supervision
• Whistleblower reporting; transmission of a whistleblower in the case of violations in the non-financial sector