Circular to Licensed Corporations and Associated Entities
Anti-Money Laundering / Counter-Terrorist Financing
Early Alert on United Nations Sanctions
The following sanctions committees of the United Nations Security Council (“UNSC”) updated their sanctions lists on 29 and 30 March 2018 respectively:
(1) the sanctions committee which administers the sanctions regime for ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida added one entity to its sanctions list Note 1 on 29 March 2018. Please refer to the relevant press release issued by the UNSC in Attachment 1; and
(2) the sanctions committee which administers the sanctions regime for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea added one individual and 21 entities to its sanctions list Note 1 on 30 March 2018. Please refer to the relevant press release issued by the UNSC in Attachment 2.
Licensed corporations (“LCs”) and associated entities (“AEs”) should update their screening databases with the above changes made by the UNSC sanctions committees for sanctions screening of customers and payments. LCs and AEs are reminded to refer to our circular on United Nations Sanctions issued on 7 February 2018 Note 2 which sets out our expectations on actions that LCs and AEs should take regarding sanctions imposed by the UNSC.
Should you have any queries regarding the contents of this circular, please contact Ms Kiki Wong on 2231 1569.
Intermediaries Supervision Department
Intermediaries Division
Securities and Futures CommissionEnclosure
End
SFO/IS/020/2018
Note 1 LCs and AEs will also be alerted when the updated UNSC sanctions lists are subsequently published under the United Nations (Anti-Terrorism Measures) Ordinance (Cap. 575) or the relevant regulation made under the United Nations Sanctions Ordinance (Cap. 537) in the Gazette. The website of the Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”) will also be updated to provide a weblink to the gazette notice thereof for easy reference.
Note 2 The circular on United Nations Sanctions can be accessed on the SFC’s website (http://www.sfc.hk/edistributionWeb/gateway/EN/circular/aml/aml-regulations/doc?refNo=18EC9)
Links:
Attachments – 1 (ISIL/Al-Qaida), 2 (North Korea)
