Recent amendments to the Luxembourg AML/CTF legal framework

A series of amendments were introduced into the amended act of 12 November 2004 on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (the AML Act 2004) by an act of 29 July 2022, mainly to clarify the obligations of in-scope professionals regarding, among others:

• The limits of the risk-based approach when applying customer due diligence requirements (Article 3 (2bis) of the AML Act 2004).
• The obligation to compare the data they have collected with the data in the registers of beneficial owners (where available) as part of the verification of the identity of the client and its beneficial owner(s) (Article 3(4) of the AML Act 2004).
• The obligation to keep copies of the documents, data and information collected as part of the client due diligence process (and not only mere references to such documents, data and information) (Article 3(6)(a) of the AML Act 2004).
• The obligation to apply enhanced due diligence requirements where a client or a person purporting to act on behalf of or for the client or beneficial owner is a politically exposed person.

Professionals should therefore review their AML/CTF policies, procedures and processes to ensure that they duly reflect the latest changes introduced in the AML Act 2004.

The act of 29 July 2022 also slightly amended the act of 10 July 2020 establishing a Register of Fiducies and Trusts (the RFT Act 2020) to specify that trustees and fiduciaries that are subject to an obligation to obtain and maintain beneficial ownership information pursuant to Article 2 or Article 3 of the RFT Act 2020 must update their files after any change to this information, within a reasonable period of time, not exceeding one month, after said change. Trustees and fiduciaries should therefore review their policies, procedures and processes to ensure that they duly reflect said amendment.

The above amendments entered into force on 12 August 2022.