White Paper: An Overview of Compliance Risk Management for Money Changers

The compliance landscape is one that is ever changing and hence difficult for businesses to navigate. With the global spotlight on combating terrorism, regulations are getting stricter and the onus falls increasingly on businesses to identify transactions that could potentially fall under terrorist financing or money laundering. Money changers represent both a key point of vulnerability and defense against such activities, and have to abide by compliance regulations set forth by the authorities governing their particular industry. While an overarching set of principles and recommendations set forth by the Financial Action Task Force guide local regulatory authorities in issuing new laws to bring businesses in their countries in line with global standards of compliance, the laws that apply to money changers differ across Asia Pacific. To provide an overview of how compliance laws and penalties vary between countries, Biz4x has put together a white paper that covers compliance as pertaining to money changers in 8 countries: Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand. The aim of the white paper is to highlight the compliance laws affecting money changers and the associated consequences of breaking those laws so money changers are well-informed of the risks of non-compliance.

An Overview of Compliance in 8 Jurisdictions is structured into two main sections. The first section provides an overview of what compliance entails when it comes to money changers, the global regulatory body that sets the bar and standards for compliance, as well as the individual local regulators in these countries that set new regulations and enforce compliance laws. With this understanding setting the context, part two of the white paper delves into the individual situation of each country. The country chapters are subdivided so the first subsection provides a quick glimpse of the current compliance scenario and where they are when it comes to meeting the standards set by the FATF, while the second sub-section highlights relevant laws that govern money changer operations as well as the legal repercussions of running afoul of those laws.

Interested to find out more about the compliance regulations in different countries across Asia Pacific? Download our white paper and tell us what you think!