Parliament adopted amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Measures Act

Bulgaria’s Parliament on June 29 passed at second reading amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Measures Act. The adopted texts prevent the possibility to finance organisations supporting sanctioned persons or terrorist organisations, through hidden accounts, through unidentified persons.

It introduces an effective mechanism to identify the persons providing corporate governance services and adequate procedures to check employees involved in the provision of corporate governance services, such as lawyers, accountants, tax advisers, etc.

The amendments provide for the requirement of registration of the persons carrying out these activities in a public electronic register with the Minister of Justice. It also provides for a note to be entered in the Commercial Register in the event of a discrepancy in the details of the actual owner.

The draft regulates the functions of the Financial Supervision Commission and the Bulgarian National Bank in relation to the exercise of supervisory powers over banks - investment intermediaries. The supervisory functions of each authority are clearly delineated in order to avoid duplication of the same powers by two or more institutions, according to the reasons for the amendment of the law.

The amendment to the law is related to Bulgaria's commitments after joining the Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II).