Anti-money laundering: Sebi releases fresh set of guidelines. Details here

livemint.com:

Securities Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday released a set of amendents on anti-money laundering standards and combating the financing of terrorism. These guidelines relate to the rules framed under the prevention of money laundering Act 2002. For the uninitiated, Prevention of Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Rules, 2023 came into force on Sep 4, this year, and in view of these amendments, certain provisions of the master circular stand to get modified.

The latest amendments include the following: 1. Additional measures: In case the host country does not allow the proper implementation of anti-money laundering/ financing of terrorism (CFT) consistent with the home country requirements, financial groups will be required to apply appropriate additional measures to manage the risks and inform the Sebi. Financial groups will be meant to implement group wide programmes for dealing with money laundering which will be applicable to all branches and majority owned subsidiaries of the financial group which will include the following: 2. Disclosing status: In case of a trust, the reporting entity will ensure that trustees disclose their status at the time of commencement of an account-based relationship.

3. Identifying beneficial ownership: While identifying beneficial ownership and control, the beneficial owner will be determined as follows: A. Client is a company: The beneficial owner is the natural persons whether acting alone or together, or through one or more juridical person, has a controlling ownership interest or who exercises control through other means.