70. Are reporting entities required to enforce enhanced due diligence policies and procedures regarding politically exposed persons?

(1) A financial institution or cash dealer shall maintain accounts in the name of the account holder. They shall not open or keep anonymous accounts or accounts which are in fictitious or incorrect names.

(2) A financial institution or cash dealer shall record and verify the identity, representative capacity, domicile, legal capacity, occupation or business purpose of persons, as well as other identifying information on those persons, whether they be occasional or usual clients, through the use of documents providing convincing evidence of their legal existence and the powers of their legal representative, or any other official or private documents, especially when opening new accounts or passbooks, entering into fiduciary transactions, renting of safe deposit boxes, or performing cash transactions over an amount pursuant to the requirement outlined in paragraph 1 of Section 170 (1) of the Act.

(3) If it appears to a financial institution or cash dealer that an applicant requesting it to enter into any transaction, whether or not in the course of a continuing business relationship, is acting on behalf of another person, the institution or cash dealer shall take reasonable measure to establish the true identity of any person on whose behalf or for whose ultimate benefit the applicant may be acting in the proposed transaction, whether as trustee, nominee, agent or otherwise.

(4) Nothing in this Section shall require the production of any evidence of identity where:

(a) the applicant is itself a financial institution or a cash dealer to which this Act applies; or

(b) there is a transaction or a series of transactions taking place in which the applicant has already produced satisfactory evidence of identity.

Source: Article 168, 17 MIRC Ch 1, Banking Act 1987 as amended to 2011

(1) Every financial institution or cash dealer shall retain records for all transactions. These records shall be kept in a readily recoverable form.

(2) Financial institutions and cash dealers shall maintain records on customer identification, account files and business correspondence for six (6) years after the account has been closed, and all records necessary to reconstruct financial transactions for six (6) years after the conclusion of the transactions.

(3) Records regarding financial transactions shall contain particulars sufficient to identify the following:

(a) name, address and occupation (or where appropriate business or principal activity) of each person:

(i) conducting the transaction; or (ii) if known, on whose behalf the transaction is being conducted as well as the method used by the financial institution or cash dealer to verify the identity of each such person;

(b) nature and date of the transaction;

(c) type and amount of currency involved;

(d) the type and identifying number of any account with the financial institution or cash dealer involved in the transaction;

(e) if the transaction involves a negotiable instrument other than currency, the name of the drawer of the instrument, the name of the institution on which it was drawn, the name of the payee (if any), the amount and date of the instrument, the number (if any) of the instrument and details of any endorsements appearing on the instrument;

(f) the name and address of the financial institution or cash dealer, and of the officer, employee or agent of the financial institution or cash dealer who prepared the report;

(g) multiple transaction which, altogether, exceed ten thousand dollars, shall be treated as single transaction if they are undertaken by or on behalf of any one person during any twenty-four hour period. In such a case, when a financial institution or cash dealer, its employees, officers or agents have knowledge of these transactions, they shall record these transactions.

(4) Record required under Subsection (1) shall be kept by the financial institution for a period of at least six (6) years from the date the relevant business or transaction was completed.

(5) A financial institution or cash dealer, its employees, officers or directors, willfully violating the requirement of Section 169 or 170 commits an offense punishable by a fine of not more than $2,000,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty (20) years, or both.

Source: Article 169, 17 MIRC Ch 1, Banking Act 1987 as amended to 2011

(1) Financial institutions and cash dealers shall, within 3 days of the transaction, report to the Commissioner all suspicious transactions, including but no limited to those which are ten thousand dollars ($10,000) or more or multiple transactions which, altogether, exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000) if they are undertaken by or on behalf of any one person during any twenty-four hour period or, complex or unusual transactions, whether completed or not, and all unusual patterns of transactions, and otherwise significant but periodic transactions, which have no apparent economic or lawful purpose. The Commissioner may provide additional information or criteria to be used in identifying suspicious transactions under this subsection.

(2) A financial institution or cash dealer which has reported a suspicious transaction in accordance with this Section shall, if requested to do so by the Commissioner or Attorney-General, give such further information as it has in relation to the transaction.

(3) The Commissioner, Attorney-General, financial institutions and cash dealers shall maintain reports required by this Section for a period of fifteen (15) years.

(4) Financial institutions and cash dealers, its employees, officers or directors, shall not notify any person or entity other than the Commissioner or Attorney-General, a court of competent jurisdiction upon process issued, or other person as may be authorized by law, of the information, record, or report that has been prepared, or otherwise referred or furnished to the Commissioner, Attorney-General or court of competent jurisdiction, or other lawfully authorized person. Any person or financial institution or cash dealer who improperly discloses such information commits an offense, punishable by a fine of not more than $2,000,000.00 or imprisonment for not more than 20 years, or both.

Source: Article 170, 17 MIRC Ch 1, Banking Act 1987 as amended to 2011

There are no specific requirements for politically exposed persons, only general responsibilities under the anti-money laundering provisions in the law.