Hong Kong AML and CTF Regulations

At the beginning of this year, the Hong Kong Government published a consultation paper on its legislative proposals to enhance the jurisdiction’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) regulations.

The consultation recently finished and the government has released its conclusions, for which it intends to table legislation by July 2017:

1. A licensing requirement will be imposed on trustees and corporate services providers, who will be required to conduct mandatory KYC / customer due diligence.
2. Hong Kong companies will be required to maintain registers of their ultimate beneficial owners or persons with significant control. Access to these registers will be restricted to competent authorities only.