Vietnam: New law on anti-money laundering

In brief

On 15 November 2022, the National Assembly of Vietnam passed the new law on anti-money laundering ("New Law"), which will replace the Current Law[1] from 1 March 2023. Reporting entities as covered in the New Law should take into account certain key changes in anti-money laundering (AML) regulations.


Contents

Key takeaways

As a high-level comment, the amendments and supplementations made under the New Law are to implement the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The New Law also finally excludes the regulations on peer-to-peer lending platform providers and virtual asset service providers, as introduced in the draft version. Nonetheless, the New Law mentions that the government, after being approved by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, will provide regulations for any emerging/new activities that the reporting entities consider as posing a threat of money laundering and which are not yet covered under the New Law.

In particular, the New Law covers significant changes to the following:

  • The scope of reporting entities
  • New requirement on national money-laundering risk assessment and money-laundering risk assessment by the reporting entities
  • AML measures
  • Reporting high-value transactions, suspicious transactions and suspicious signs
  • Time limit for reporting
  • Obligation to retain customer' data
  • State authorities' responsibilities in preventing and combating money laundering

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[1] Law No. 07/2012/QH13 on Anti-Money Laundering passed by the National Assembly on 18 June 2012 ("Current Law").

Contact Information
Oanh Nguyen
Managing Partner at BakerMcKenzie
Ho Chi Minh City
oanh.nguyen@bakermckenzie.com
Thuy Van Pham
Special Counsel
Ho Chi Minh City
ThuyVan.Pham@bakermckenzie.com

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