As of next Sunday, banks, provident funds and insurance companies will be required to report to the Ministry of Justice’s anti-money laundering authority any financial transaction of over NIS 50,000. Governor of the Bank of Israel David Klein today signed the ordinance prohibiting money laundering, which includes special directives about the banks’ identification, reporting and registration duties in the struggle against money laundering. Before signing the ordinance, Klein consulted Minister of Justice Meir Sheetrit and Minister of Public Security Uzi Landau.
Minister of Finance Silvan Shalom recently issued similar directives for provident funds and insurance companies. Further anti-money laundering ordinances and directives are expected to be issued soon to stock exchange members, portfolio managers, insurance agents, the Postal Authority’s bank and moneychangers.
There will be two types of obligatory reporting to the anti-money laundering authority. The first is automatic factual reporting, determined by the type and scope of a financial transaction, including cash transfers and conversion of over NIS 50,000, the deposition and withdrawal of cash through a bank account, the transfer and reception of cash from abroad, the issuance of a bank check and the purchase of travelers checks of over NIS 200,000, and foreign currency checks deposits and international conversions of over NIS 1 million.
The second type of obligatory reporting will be done at bank managers’ discretion concerning transactions apparently undertaken to evade automatic factual reporting, as well as in cases of managing an account for a third party without reporting the fact.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 14 February, 2002