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Belize: New Anti-Money Laundering Requirements

The Belize Money Laundering and Terrorism (Prevention) Amendment Act of 2014 (‘the Act’) came into effect on 7th February 2014.

Mon 31 Mar 2014

The Act requires entities who write insurance in Belize to have certain controls in place to mitigate money laundering risk. Lloyd’s managing agents writing insurance business in Belize will need to be aware of the Act and the new requirements, and ensure that they have appropriate procedures in place to comply.

The Act covers:

  • Customer verification and due diligence
  • Where managing agents can rely on due diligence undertaken by intermediaries, such as brokers
  • How to manage the risk associated with Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs)
  • Suspicious transaction reporting

All insurance business placed in Belize must be placed through an appropriately licensed local broker. Lloyd’s managing agents may therefore be able to rely on the local broker to undertake the appropriate customer verification and due diligence on their behalf.

The Act specifies that managing agents who wish to rely on an broker for these purposes must be satisfied that the broker is, firstly, appropriately regulated and supervised and, secondly, able to provide copies of their customer identification data on request.

Further details of the new anti-money laundering requirements in Belize, and the impact on the Lloyd’s Market, are available on Crystal.