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The obliged persons under art 4 of the Law on measures against money laundering (LMAML) had to prepare/update the Internal rules under art.101 until 09.07.2020 (within the 6-months term after the announcement of the National assessment of the risk).  

Under the provision of the new art.24 of the Law on measures and actions during the state of emergency (effective 09.04.2020) some of the terms under LMAML shall be suspended till the repeal of the state of emergency.  

In case the state of emergency will be repealed on 13.05.2020, than the terms under art.102, para 1 and 2, art.104, para 2 and 4, art.106, para 4 and 5 and § 6 of the LMAML shall be extended with 35 days. Particularly the term for preparation/update of the Internal rules under art.101 of the LMAML shall be extended till 13.08.2020. This term depends on the period of the state of emergency and there is big possibility to be changed again.  

Among the persons obliged to prepare Internal rules under art.101 of the LMAML are the insurers; investment intermediaries; notary publics; the private inforcement agents; persons providing accounting services; tax consultations, legal services; persons providing intermediation in real estate  transactions, including with respect to real estate leasing transactions where the monthly rent amounts to or exceeds EUR 10 000; the wholesalers; the traders in arms, oil and petroleum products; the persons that, by way of their business, provide a registered office, correspondence address, business accommodation; the persons organising public procurement awards; the professional sports clubs; the political parties; persons that trade or act as intermediaries in the trade in works of art, including art galleries and auction houses, where the value of the transaction is equal to or exceeds EUR 10 000; persons that, by occupation, provide exchange services between virtual currencies and others. 

The persons under art.4 of the LMAML shall be obliged to take the following measures against money laundering, namely: 

1. customer due diligence (identification of the clients and the beneficial owners);   

2. collection and preparation of documents and other information under the terms and according to the procedure established by LMAML; 

3. retention of the documents, data and information collected and prepared for the purposes of the Act;   

4. assessment of the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing;   

5. disclosure of information on suspicious operations, transactions and clients;   

6. disclosure of other information for the purposes of the Act; 

The internal rules under Art. 101 of the LMAML is in fact a detailed plan for the fulfillment of the above mentioned obligations, that shall be considered with the National assessment of the risk. They in fact will be the internal manual on measures against money laundering and shall be executed by the obliged person and its employees.  

The requirement for sending the Internal rules to the respective authority dropped off the Law, but in case of inspection the rules shall be presented to the control authorities.  

The team of Bulgarian Consulting Group monitors all ammendments in the legislation in order to inform its clients on time about the changes in the requirements concerning their business. In case that you need an additional information or co-operation in the preparation of the Internal rules and the other documents in connection with the measures against money laundering do not hesitate to contact us!