Banks may rely on notary statement for anti-money laundering checks

Banks were relieved of the dilemma of notary accounts in their anti-money laundering checks. When requesting information about accounts held by notaries for clients, banks often ran up against the notaries' duty of confidentiality. It was now agreed that a statement by the notary about his or her own money laundering checks will suffice, reported the Dutch Banking Association (NVB).

To combat money laundering or terrorist financing, banks are required to investigate the origin of the money held in client accounts. However, due to the duty of confidentiality, this is difficult in the case of so-called third-party money accounts of notary offices, which contain funds that do not belong to the notary or the office itself.

It has now been decided that the bank no longer has to investigate the funds in these third-party accounts itself, but can rely on the statement of these accounts issued by a notary. This solution came about after the NVB consulted with the regulator Nederlandsche Bank and the Ministries of Justice and Security and Finance. Notaries must report each time they issue such a statement to the regulator for their sector, the Financial Supervision Bureau,.

It is very important to banks to comply with the legal requirements for combating money laundering. Due to shortcomings in checks for possible criminal money flows, ING and ABN AMRO have already reached settlements of hundreds of millions of euros with the Public Prosecution Service. Earlier this month, it turned out that the Public Prosecution Service also suspected Rabobank of such negligence.