GIBRALTAR Law and Practice Contributed by: Adrian Pilcher, Stuart Dalmedo and Louise Anne Turnock, ISOLAS LLP
5.4 Global Anti-Money Laundering Gibraltar’s AML framework is aligned with FATF stand - ards, MONEYVAL expectations and (historically) EU AML Directives. The core legislative instrument is the Proceeds of Crime Act 2015 (POCA), supported by sector-specific regulations and supervised through a multi-agency model. Key authorities involved include: • the Gibraltar Financial Intelligence Unit (GFIU) – receipt and analysis of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs); and • the GFSC/Office of Fair Trading/LSRA – AML supervision (depending on sector). Any company or person carrying on Relevant Finan - cial Business (RFB) under POCA must submit SARs where knowledge, suspicion or reasonable grounds for suspicion of the following arise in the course of business: • money laundering; • terrorist financing; or • proliferation financing. This includes (among others): • financial services firms; • trust and company service providers; • legal and accounting practices (when carrying on RFB); • real estate agents; and • certain trading and asset-handling businesses. The following must be reported: • suspicious transactions or activity (whether com - pleted or attempted); and • SARs must not be used to report ordinary fraud (which is reportable to law enforcement instead). SARs must be submitted electronically to the GFIU. Companies subject to POCA must: • carry out and document business-wide AML risk assessments; and
• maintain internal reporting procedures for staff to escalate concerns. The 2025 Gibraltar National Risk Assessment reinforc - es the obligation on firms to align internal reporting systems with identified jurisdictional risks. 6. Audit, Risk and Internal Controls 6.1 External Auditors Unless a company qualifies as a small company (as defined under the Companies Act), the shareholders must, at each annual general meeting, appoint an auditor or auditors to hold office until the next annual general meeting. Prior to the first annual general meeting, the first audi - tors of the company may be appointed by the direc - tors at any time before that meeting, and auditors so appointed shall hold office until that meeting. The auditors may be removed by the shareholders, who may appoint a replacement auditor. If a company qualifies as a small company and cer - tain other conditions prescribed under the Companies Act are met, the requirements of the Companies Act relating to the appointment of auditors and the audit of accounts in respect of the applicable financial year shall not apply to that company. A company will be classed as a small company if it meets two of the following three parameters in the financial year in question and the preceding year. If the financial year is the company’s first, the conditions only need to be met in its first financial year: • it must have an annual turnover of not more than GBP10.2 million; • it must have a balance sheet total of not more than GBP5.1 million; and • its average number of employees must not be more than 50. There are requirements that govern the relationship between the company and the auditor, including that:
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