Description
The German Money Laundering Act (Geldwäschegesetz - GwG) requires obligated parties to take appropriate business- and customer-related internal safeguards to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. These internal security measures include, in particular, the appointment of an anti-money laundering officer and a deputy. The obligation to appoint a money laundering officer exists either directly by virtue of the law (Section 7 (1) sentence 1 AMLA) or on the basis of an order issued by the competent authority (Section 7 (3) AMLA, see related links).
This order was issued in mid-August 2021 for all Bavarian administrative districts for commercial dealers in goods whose main activity (more than 50% of total sales in the previous fiscal year) is dealing in precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum, precious stones, jewelry, watches, art objects, antiques, motor vehicles, ships, motorboats or aircraft and who employed a total of at least 15 employees in the areas of acquisition, cashiering, customer accounting, sales and distribution, including management personnel (especially management), as of the last day of the previous fiscal year.
The competent authority must be notified in advance of the appointment of a money laundering officer and his/her replacement or dismissal (Section 7 (4) Sentence 1 GwG). We recommend using the forms that can be downloaded under "Forms" for the notification (notification of change/representation/dismissal).
Pursuant to Section 7 (2) GwG, an application may be made to the locally competent supervisory authority to waive the obligation to appoint a money laundering officer(s).
Pursuant to Section 6 (7) Sentence 1 AMLA, a contractual agreement may be concluded by the obligated parties to transfer the duties of the money laundering officer(s) to third parties. The consent of the supervisory authority is not required for this. Rather, prior notification of the transfer is sufficient.
Information on the contractual requirements and a detailed application note can be found under "Further links".
If you select a location under "Localization" the contact details of the responsible authority and, if applicable, locally valid information will be displayed.