On 29 November 2022, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) issued Circular 535 informing all Regulated Entities that, on 14 June 2022, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published (EBA/GL/2022/05) on policies and procedures in relation to compliance management and the role and responsibilities of the AML/CFT compliance officer under Article 8 and Chapter VI of Directive (EU) 2015/849 (Guidelines). The Guidelines are effective as of 1 December 2022.

The Guidelines specify the role, tasks and responsibilities of the AML/CFT compliance officer, the management body and senior manager in charge of AML/CFT compliance as well as internal policies, controls and procedures, as referred to in Article 8, and Article 45 and Article 46 of Directive (EU) 2015/849, which can be accessed here.

The Guidelines further specify that credit or financial institutions should appoint one member of their management body who will ultimately be responsible for the implementation of the AML/CFT obligations and clarify the tasks and functions of that person, they also describe the roles and responsibilities of the AML/CFT compliance officer.

Having in mind that the AML/CFT Law and more specifically the relevant sections of it are applicable to all entities under CySEC’s supervision, CySEC calls all such entities to comply with the Guidelines and be able to establish sound policies, controls and procedures.

CySEC’s Circular 535 contains detailed information and can be found here.

EBA Guidelines can be found here.