29 March 2011

Commission releases risk assessment for sector

The Securities Commission today released a risk assessment to help those it is responsible for supervising prepare to meet upcoming requirements of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act 2009.

Under the legislation, due to come fully into force in 2013, the Commission will supervise issuers of securities, sharebrokers, financial advisers, trustee corporations, collective investment schemes and futures dealers.

The Sector Risk Assessment (SRA) focuses on the risk of money laundering that these types of entity may face.

“Protecting our market from any kind of illegal behaviour such as money laundering should be the focus of every entity supervised by the Commission,” Chairman Jane Diplock said. “Our own assessment provides guidance and highlights the risks of money laundering and the action each entity needs to take, including producing their own risk assessment.”

The assessment highlights the possible risk of money laundering in each sector, for example, low risk for issuers of securities, medium risk for sharebrokers and medium to high risk for financial advisers.

The Sector Risk Assessment can be found on the Commission’s website at www.seccom.govt.nz.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the Department of Internal Affairs have also published sector risk assessments for the entities they will be responsible for, and these can be found at www.rbnz.govt.nz and www.dia.govt.nz.

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