New Zealand plans raft of big changes to AML regime

New Zealand's government has released a cabinet paper setting out anti-money laundering (AML) changes involving  25 reforming measures which are intended to go live on 1 June 2025.

The 25 amendments do not cover all the remaining recommendations from the statutory report – these will be tackled as part of a more substantive future update to the AML/CFT Act.

New Zealand headquartered law firm Buddle Findlay said in a briefing note on 2 September that the proposed amendments follow the Ministry of Justice's (MoJ) 2022 statutory review of the AML/CFT Act and resulting report which contained over 200 recommendations for amending the AML/CFT regime.

Among the most significant amendments it cited were :

• Removing requirements to verify information on source of funds and source of wealth when conducting enhanced customer due diligence (CDD) on low risk trusts
• Implementing an explicit prohibition on international wire transfers that are not accompanied by required information
• Altering the language in the Act requiring reporting entities to "have regard" to certain factors when conducting a risk assessment, to require reporting entities to take into account these factors to a greater extent.

The proposed bill is intended to be introduced to Parliament by December 2024.