Disclosing Beneficial Ownership Information In Suspicious Transaction Reports

On September 14, 2021, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (“BSP”) issued Circular Letter (“CL”) No. CL-2021-069 addressed to all BSP-Supervised Financial Institutions (“BSFI”). The CL aims to disseminate to all BSFIs the Anti-Money Laundering Council (“AMLC”) Advisory on disclosing beneficial ownership information in Suspicious Transaction Reports (“STRs”).

Under the said Advisory, the AMLC encouraged the covered persons to disclose the beneficial owner/s of account holders or customers categorized as juridical persons or legal arrangements when filing STRs. STRs must be complete, accurate, and timely as they are vital sources of financial intelligence and are essential in the investigation and prosecution of money laundering, terrorism financing, and other related cases/crimes. In AMLC Registration and Reporting Guidelines (“ARRG”), it was provided that the “narrative field” of the STR should contain all the details and events leading to the suspicion, including other information that may be of help or importance to the report. Thus, the name/s of the beneficial owner/s and all relevant information may be indicated in the narrative field of the STRs. The beneficial owner/s may be identified based on the Guidelines on Identifying Beneficial Ownership or AMLC Regulatory Issuance (“ARI”) A, B, and C No. 3, Series of 2018.
The Advisory likewise emphasized the importance of the beneficial ownership information as provided in Recommendations 24 and 25 of the Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”) that cover the transparency and beneficial ownership of legal persons and legal arrangements, respectively.