Art. 13 Integrity of employees | Anti-money laundering regulation (AMLR) | AML

This article focuses on the internal standards that obliged entities must apply to the people involved in their AML/CFT compliance work.

It establishes requirements around staff assessments, conflict of interest management, and the disclosure of personal relationships with customers.

The article sits alongside Articles 11 and 12, which deal with compliance functions and training respectively, and together they form the internal governance framework for compliance personnel.

Notably, the article contains an explicit carve-out for sole traders or single-person legal entities, to whom none of these requirements apply.

Important points:

Ensure all staff, agents, and distributors directly involved in compliance undergo an approved assessment of their skills, repute, honesty, and integrity before taking up their role, with regular reassessments thereafter.
Any person involved in compliance who has a close private or professional relationship with a customer must disclose this to the compliance officer and is barred from handling compliance tasks relating to that customer.
Put in place procedures to prevent and manage conflicts of interest affecting compliance tasks.

1. Any employee, or person in a comparable position, including agents and distributors, directly participating in the obliged entity’s compliance with this Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 and any administrative act issued by any supervisor, shall undergo an assessment commensurate with the risks associated with the tasks performed and whose content is approved by the compliance officer of:
  1. individual skills, knowledge and expertise to carry out their functions effectively;
  2. good repute, honesty and integrity.
2. The assessment referred to in the first subparagraph shall be performed prior to taking up of activities by the employee or person in a comparable position, including agents and distributors, and shall be regularly repeated. The intensity of the subsequent assessments shall be determined on the basis of the tasks entrusted to the person and risks associated with the function they perform.
1. Employees, or persons in comparable positions, including agents and distributors, entrusted with tasks related to the obliged entity’s compliance with this Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 and any administrative act issued by any supervisor, shall inform the compliance officer of any close private or professional relationship established with the obliged entity’s customers or prospective customers and shall be prevented from undertaking any tasks related to the obliged entity’s compliance in relation to those customers.
1. Obliged entities shall have in place procedures to prevent and manage conflicts of interest that may affect the carrying out of tasks related to the obliged entity’s compliance with this Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 and any administrative act issued by any supervisor.
1. This Article shall not apply where the obliged entity is a natural person or a legal person whose activities are performed by one natural person only.