Legislation
Portugal – Portugal strengthens money-laundering regulations
By Lewis - 15 January 2018
Portugal has declared what it describes as a ‘genuine’ fight against money laundering and terrorist funding, which involves, among other mechanisms, the prohibition of cash payments in excess of €3,000 and the abolition of bearer securities or shares.
The new law strengthens internal control measures and procedures, inlcuding the duty of regular (and registered) training, the need for segregation between the administrator in charge of the compliance group (and even the board itself), and the compliance responsible within the new law (a kind of head of compliance adapted to the new legal regime), resulting from independence and decision autonomy.
Portugal’s regulations also reshape the configuration of the criminal type of laundering and amplifies ‘neocriminalisations.’ The breach of the duties and obligations provided for in the new law constitute a wide range of offenses which, in the limit, may amount to €5m (in the case of a legal person or similar entity) and €1m (in the case of natural people), maximum limits that may even be raised to double if there is a financial benefit of more than €500,000.
In the case of legal entities which are credit or financial institutions, gambling operators in casinos and dealers operating bingo halls, betting and lottery winners and entities covered by the Legal Framework for Online Gambling and Betting, the offenses may correspond to 10 per cent of the total annual turnover, if it’s a higher value than the regular and aforementioned limits.
