On 2 July 2019, the Act implementing the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5MLD) (Implementatiewet wijziging vierde anti-witwasrichtlijn, the Proposed Act) was submitted to the Dutch Parliament (Tweede Kamer).
The Proposed Act will implement the 5MLD into Dutch law, primarily by amending the Act on the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism (Wet ter voorkoming van witwassen en financiering van terrorisme). Most provisions of 5MLD will need to be implemented by 10 January 2020. The main changes that 5MLD makes to the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (EU/2015/849) (4MLD) are described in more detail in our previous blog post.
The Proposed Act was published for public consultation at the end of 2018. As a result of the responses thereto and the advice of the Council of State (Raad van State), several amendments to the Proposed Act and the explanatory notes have been made. These amendments include, but are not limited to the following:
- virtual currency exchange platforms (VCEPs) and custodian wallet providers (CWPs) will be subject to a registration regime instead of the earlier proposed licence regime. This amendment is made on the basis of advice of the Council of State;
- under the registration regime, VCEPs and CWPs providing their services in or from the Netherlands will have to be registered with the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank, DNB) and, among other things, their daily policymakers will need to be screened by DNB. The explanatory notes provide additional guidance on the relevant factors for determining whether VCEPs and CWPs are offering their services ‘in or from the Netherlands’; and
- VCEPs and CWPs will also be subject to additional requirements, such as the requirement to have a transparent control structure and to notify DNB of any amendments to its control structure.
View the Proposed Act (Dutch only), 2 July 2019.
View the explanatory notes (Dutch only), 2 July 2019.