Trust (Amendment) Bill, 2022 is signed into law
October 03, 2022
The Trusts (Amendment) Bill, 2022, was approved by the National Assembly in its session of 28th September and subsequently assented into law by President Wavel Ramkalawan, on 29th September.
The main amendment it brings to the Trusts Act, 2021 is the granting of power to co-trustees to request beneficial ownership information from each other and to extend the scope of information that can be exchanged between them.
To enable the amendment, a new section was inserted after section 30 of the principal Act.
The amendment to the Act was required to ensure compliance to Recommendation 25 of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations. These Recommendations are the internationally endorsed global standards against money laundering and terrorist financing.
The Mutual Evaluation Report is a report compiled by the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group, ESAAMLG, the branch of FATF for this region, evaluating countries against these standards. In its last Mutual Evaluation Report in 2018, Seychelles was rated ‘partially compliant’ under Recommendation 25.
When presenting the amendment to the National Assembly on Wednesday 28th September, the Minister for Finance, National Planning and Trade, Naadir Hassan, said the amendment will guarantee that Seychelles is compliant to the international standards under Recommendation 25, as set by the FATF.
“The amendment will provide more clarity to the issue of sharing of information, under this act.”
At the end of September, Seychelles submitted its re-rating report to ESAAMLG, where 9 Recommendations are under the microscope for re-evaluation.
The Chairperson of the National Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Committee, SS Patrick Payet, said Seychelles is confident that the final evaluation will be positive.
‘Seychelles is being proactive to ensure it honours all its international commitments, when it comes to combating money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism.’
To note, as part of this commitment, the Ministry of Finance, National Planning and Trade, has set up a new division within the Ministry, the Financial Services Development Division, whose mandate it is to coordinate with all partners involved, local and international, to ascertain Seychelles’ position of continued compliance to international standards.
Click on the link below to access the newly amended act.
http://www.finance.gov.sc/uploads/files/Act-20-2022-Trusts-Amendment-Act-2022.pdf