In order to stay up to date with the new addition of the new Companies Act 2017, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has revised their Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Regulations.
The new regulations call for certain documents to be obtained by banks and development finance institutions (DFIs) before an account can be opened. The banks and DFIs will be required to submit reports specifying the person(s) authorised to open and operate the account, although a Single Member Company (SMC) registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) will not be required to do so. For the companies themselves that wish to open bank accounts and establish banking relations, they will be required to submit memorandums of association, appropriate articles of association, a certificate of incorporation, and the SECP registered declaration of commencement of business, as well as a list of all the directors.
The last amendment to the AML/CFT Regulations occurred earlier this June and was created upon the National Risk Assessment. The assessment was completed by the participation of stakeholders, law enforcement agencies, ministries, financial monitoring units, and regulatory bodies. As of June, all banks and DFIs are expected to finalize their risk review and update all of their policies and procedures to the Companies Act 2017 by December 31, 2017.