CALL FOR COMMENTS ON EMPLOYEE SCREENING BY ACCOUNTABLE INSTITUTIONS
02/08/2022
The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) has published draft Directive 6/2022, which requires accountable institutions to screen prospective employees and current employees for competence and integrity, as well as scrutinise employee information against the targeted financial sanctions (TFS) lists, in order to identify, assess, monitor, mitigate and manage the risk of money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing (employee screening).
An accountable institution must provide for the manner in which employee screening will be conducted, keep a record of the outcome of such screening and make the manner and outcome of employee screening available to the FIC or the supervisory body which performs regulatory or supervisory functions in respect of that accountable institution.
The FIC’s draft Public Compliance Communication on Directive 6/2022 (draft PCC 16 of 2022) provides guidance regarding certain requirements of draft Directive 6/2022, including:
The categories of employees which may present higher ML/TF/PF risks (such as senior management);
When screening should be done on prospective employees and current employees;
What factors should be considered when screening an employee for competence and integrity;
When enhanced screening measures may be required (for example, when an employee is a known close associate or immediate family member of a high-risk client);
The screening of all employees (regardless of their level of ML/TF/PF risk) against the TFS lists.
Draft Directive 6/2022 will become effective and enforceable 3 months from date of publication in the Government Gazette.