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Legislation and rules

Below are the main regulatory acts that directly or indirectly govern the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF). These are only part of the legal and regulatory acquis on this issue.

European Union

Portugal

Legislation

  • Law No 99-A/2021 of 31 december 2021 – Amends several legal acts, including Law No. 83/2017, of August 18, which establishes measures to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism (5th amendment) (Portuguese only).
  • Law No 58/2020 of 31 August 2020 - transposes Directive (EU) 2018/843 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering or terrorist financing and Directive (EU) 2018/1673 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on combating money laundering by criminal law, amending various laws (Portuguese only).
  • Law No 55/2020 of 27 August - Defines the objectives, priorities and criminal policy guidelines for the 2020-2022 biennium, in compliance with Law No 17/2006 of 23 May, which approves the Criminal Policy Framework Law (Portuguese only).
  • Law No 97/2017 of 23 August 2017 - Regulates the implementation and enforcement of restrictive measures adopted by the United Nations or the European Union and establishes the penalties applicable to infringements of these measures (in Portugues only).
  • Law No 92/2017 of 22 August 2017 - Requires the use of a specific means of payment in transactions involving amounts equal to or greater than EUR 3000 (in Portuguese only).
  • Law No 89/2017 of 21 August 2017 - Approves the Legal Regime of the Central Register of Beneficial Ownership, provided for in article 34 of Law no. 83/2017, of August 18 (in Portuguese only).
  • Law No 83/2017 of 18 August 2017 - Establishes measures to combat money laundering and terrorism financing, partially transposing the Directives 2015/849/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of May 20, 2015, and 2016/2258/EU of the Council of 6 of December 2016, amends the Criminal Code and the Industrial Property Code and repeals Law no. 25/2008, of June 5 (in Portuguese only).
  • Law No 52/2003 of 22 August 2003 – Sets forth measures to combat terrorismo (in Portuguese only).
  • Law No 5/2002 of 11 January 2002 – Lays down measures to combat organised crime and economic and financial crime and provides for a special system for the collection of evidence, the violation of professional secrecy and loss of assets to the State in relation to unlawful acts of a specified type, such as money laundering and terrorist financing (in Portuguese only).
  • Decree-Law No 91/2018 of 12 November 2018 - Approves the Legal Framework for Payment Services and Electronic Money (in Portuguese only).
  • Decree-Law No 61/2007 of 14 March 2007 – Approves the legal system governing the control of cash carried by natural persons entering or leaving the EU through the Portuguese territory, and the control of cash movements with other EU Member States (in Portuguese only).
  • Decree-Law No 298/92 of 31 December 1992 – Approves the Legal Framework of Credit Institutions and Financial Companies [in particular the provisions of Articles 22-1(k) (withdrawal of authorisation), 103-2(e) (acquisition of qualifying holdings), 118‐A (duty to refrain from carrying out operations and registration of operations with offshore jurisdictions), 165-1(b) and (c) (deposits excluded from the guarantee) and 167-5 (deposit repayment procedures)] (in Portuguese only).
  • Resolution of the Council of Ministers No 88/2015 of 1 October 2015 (published in the Official Gazette, Series 1, of 6 October 2015) – Establishes the AML/CFT Coordination Committee (in Portuguese only).
  • Ministerial Order No 309-A/2020, of 31 december  – Amends Ministerial Order No 150/2004, of 13 February, which approves the list of countries, territories and regions with clearly more favourable tax regimes (Portuguese only).
  • Ministerial Order No 200/2019 of 28 June 2019 - Sets a deadline for the submission of the first beneficial owner declaration with central register of beneficial ownership and revokes articles 13 and 17 of Ministerial Order No 233/2018, of 21 August 2018 (in Portuguese only).
  • Ministerial Order No 310/2018 of 4 December 2018 - Regulates article 45 of Law 83/2017, defining the types of operations to be reported by obliged entities to the UIF (the Portuguese police's financial information unit) and the DCIAP (the central investigation department of Portugal's public prosecution service) (in Portuguese only).
  • Ministerial Order No 233/2018 of 21 August 2018 - Governs the legal framework for the central register of beneficial ownership (in Portuguese only).
  • Ministerial Order No 345-A/2016 of 30 December 2016 – Establishes the list of countries, territories and regions with privileged taxation systems (in Portuguese only).
  • Ministerial Order No 150/2004 of 13 February 2004 - Approves the list of countries, territories or regions with privileged and more favourable taxation (in Portuguese only).
  • Decision No 490/2014 of 23 December 2013 (published in the Official Gazette, Series 2, of 10 January 2014) – Provides for the setting-up of a Working Group targeted at assessing the implications of the restrictive measures on the Portuguese legal order, identifying all regulatory, institutional and operational instruments in force relating to said measures, harmonising those instruments and defining the best practices to be followed when implementing the restrictive measures and in communication mechanisms, and preparing the necessary draft legal, regulatory and operational amendments (in Portuguese only).
  • Decision No 9125/2013 of 1 July 2013 (published in the Official Gazette, Series 2, of 12 July 2013) Provides for the setting-up of a Working Group targeted at – by studying the new FATF Standards and identifying the regulatory, institutional and operational instruments in force relating to all issues covered by said Standards – preparing the draft legal, regulatory and operational amendments needed to ensure compliance with the Standards (in Portuguese only).
  • Portuguese Penal Code (whose Article 368-A typifies the laundering crime) (in Portuguese only).

Banco de Portugal’s regulatory standards

  • Notice of Banco de Portugal No 1/2022 of 6 June 2022 - Governs enforcement conditions, procedures, instruments, mechanisms, enforcement measures, reporting obligations and other aspects necessary for ensuring compliance with obligations for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, within the activities of financial entities subject to the Bank's supervision, as well as the means and mechanisms necessary for such entities to comply with the duties enshrined in Law No 97/2017, and also the measures that payment service providers must adopt to detect transfers of funds with missing or incomplete information on the payer or payee. Revokes and replaces Notice no. 2/2018 and Instruction no. 2/2021 (in Portuguese only).
  • Notice of Banco de Portugal No. 3/2021, of 13 April 2021, regulating the registration process with the Banco de Portugal of entities that intend to carry out, within Portuguese territory, activities with virtual assets subject to registration, as well as subsequent changes to the elements to be registered (in Portuguese only).
  • Notice of Banco de Portugal No 3/2020, of 15 July 2020 - Regulates the systems of governance and internal control and defines the minimum standards on which the organisational culture of the entities subject to supervision by Banco de Portugal must be based (in Portuguese only).
  • Notice of Banco de Portugal No 8/2016 of 30 September 2016 - Establishes the duties of registration and communication to the Bank of Portugal of payment operations, corresponding to payment services, whose beneficial owner is a natural or legal person having its head office in an offshore jurisdiction (in Portuguese only).
  • Notice of Banco de Portugal No 7/2009 of 16 September 2009 – Prohibits credit granting to entities having their head office in an offshore jurisdiction considered as non-cooperative or whose ultimate beneficiary is unknown (in Portuguese only).
  • Instruction of Banco de Portugal No 25/2020 of 24 September 2020 - Report on the activity carried out in Portuguese territory by financial entities with their head office in another Member State of the European Union, operating in Portugal under the freedom to provide services 
  • Instruction of Banco de Portugal No 5/2019 of 30 January 2019 - Sets forth the requirements for entities subject to the Bank's supervision to regularly report information to Banco de Portugal in the field of prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) (in Portuguese only).
Tags 
Prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing