The Act on Preventing Money Laundering applies to lawyers and others offering legal services when they are dealing with cases defined more closely in the Act on Preventing Money Laundering. The Act on Preventing Money Laundering is applied mainly to cases which are not connected to trials or preliminary investigations.

The Act on Preventing Money Laundering is applied to the majority of cases and often the nature of a customer’s case may change from the early stages so that e.g., a civil suit changes to dealing with the customer’s affairs more extensively. Thus, it is important that the requirements of the Act on Preventing Money Laundering have been dealt with throughout the relationship with all customers.

In accordance with the Act on Preventing Money Laundering, the lawyer and provider of legal services must identify the customer and his/her representative and verify the identity. The political influence of the customer must also be reviewed and a topical customer-specific risk assessment produced. The beneficial owners must be identified and also verified if they are from a high-risk country or the customer has been assessed as high-risk for other reasons. The information must be stored in a reliable way and archived for five years after the customer relationship has ended.

As commissions are often connected to financial arrangements, the significance of the requirements of the Act on Preventing Money Laundering is emphasised. It is of particular importance to regularly check that customers and their beneficial owners are not on asset freezing or sanctions lists. The changes to sanctions lists must be regularly monitored throughout the duration of customer relationships. If a customer is an object of a national or an international sanctions and asset freezing decision, you must refrain from forming or maintaining a customer relationship with them.

The DOKS® interfaces with the most important sanctions lists and the automated sanctions list monitoring are an excellent tool for attending to the inspection and monitoring requirements required by law. Furthermore, the Business Information System (YTJ) automatically updates once a day the customer registry entries (e.g., information on a company’s preliminary tax register status or restructuring or bankruptcy information).

DOKS can significantly accelerate the cumbersome work stages in establishing and monitoring customer relationships. You can obtain and save the required information on customers using simple, effortless and data secure methods. The service includes numerous other features which optimise experts’ work, such as electronic signatures, secure emails for sending sensitive information as well as Trade Register extracts, financial statements, payment defaults and rating reports.

Furthermore, taking care of the obligations of the Act on Preventing Money Laundering is also helped by the fact that in DOKS the documentation on the identification of customers is stored in one place where the information can be easily checked. The automated sanctions list reviews and numerical risk assessment, which the company considers applying to its own risk assessments, bring added value.