The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (the Reserve Bank) has today issued a formal warning to Aotearoa Credit Union (ACU) under section 80 of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (the Act). As the supervisor of non-bank deposit takers for compliance with their Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations, the Reserve Bank has reasonable grounds to believe that during the time period between 30 June 2013 and 2 February 2015, ACU did not meet the following obligations under the Act:
- The obligation to conduct ongoing customer due diligence and account monitoring (section 31(2));
- The requirement to report suspicious transactions in the prescribed form, within three working days of a suspicion being formed (section 40);
- The requirement to have adequate and effective procedures, policies and controls to monitor and manage compliance with the AML/CFT programme (section 57(l)); and
- The obligation to comply with customer due diligence requirements, including ongoing customer due diligence and account monitoring (section 57(c)).
The Reserve Bank has accepted an enforceable undertaking from ACU under section 81 of the Act, to review its AML/CFT Programme and amend the identified deficiencies that contributed to its failure to meet the obligations outlined above.
The enforceable undertaking is an agreement between the Reserve Bank and ACU that ACU will undertake specific steps to amend or correct deficiencies in its risk assessment and AML/CFT programme identified by the Reserve Bank. The exact terms of the enforceable undertaking are confidential.
In the event ACU fails to meet the terms of the enforceable undertaking, the Reserve Bank may apply to the court for a court order directing ACU to comply with the enforceable undertaking.