Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2021-01-18

Amendments to the Financial Transactions Reporting Act, No.6 of 2006, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, No.5 of 2006 and the Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Financing Act, No.25 of 2005

- Approval of the Cabinet was granted at its meeting held on 05th May 2010 to make amendments to the Financial Transactions Reporting Act, to address the deficiencies recognized by the Legal Review Committee and Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) as approved by the National Coordinating Committee (NCC) on Anti Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and in compliance with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Accordingly, the task of formulating draft amending legislation has been initiated and subsequently, the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering has identified several further amendments to be made in addition to those which have already been recognized during its mutual assessment. The draft prepared by a Committee comprising the representatives of the relevant agencies such as the Attorney General's Department, Legal Draftsman's Department and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) was also revisited by the International Monetary Fund Technical Assistance Mission in March, 2017. As such, with a view to addressing the issues so identified, the proposal made by the Hon. Prime Minister in his capacity as the Minister of Finance to amend the following Acts and to instruct the Legal Draftsman to draft legislation for the purpose, was approved by the Cabinet.

* Financial Transactions Reporting Act, No.6 of 2006

* Prevention of Money Laundering Act, No.5 of 2006.

* Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Financing Act, No.25 of 2005-