PORTUGAL Law and Practice Contributed by: Pedro Duro, Mariana Proença Lobo and Joana Avelino Gomes, CS’Associados
• corruption risk management and audit regula - tion – there is a lack of definitions of internal audit or control applicable across all govern - ment institutions, and an absence of regu - lations establishing operational provisions and management responsibilities for internal auditing; • political finance regulation – non-compliance with the obligation for political parties to pre - sent their accounts on an annual basis must be addressed; and • lobbying – there is a need to regulate lobby - ing activities, considering that this is essential to ensure transparency. 9.2 Likely Changes to the Applicable Legislation of the Enforcement Body A new package of rules regarding money laun - dering and terrorism financing prevention has been approved by the EU, including Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2024 and Directive (EU) 2024/1640 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2024; these encompass some relevant changes in this sector (which may subsequently impact the Portuguese legislation on money laundering prevention), namely: • the inclusion of new obliged entities (mostly entities in the crypto-asset sector, luxury goods traders and football clubs and agents); • the lowering of the thresholds that trigger the need to comply with due diligence duties (the minimum threshold for customer identification and verification in occasional transactions is lowered to EUR10,000);
• the lowering of the maximum amount of cash payments to EUR10,000; • extension of the obligation to provide infor - mation on the ultimate beneficial owner to entities based outside of the EU when certain operations (such as the granting of a public contract for goods or services or conces - sions by a contracting authority in the EU or the acquisition of motor vehicles for non- commercial purposes at a price equal to or greater than EUR250 000 or its equivalent in the national currency) are carried out; and • member states making available, through a centralised mechanism, information on hold - ers of bank accounts or payment accounts, including virtual IBANs, securities accounts, crypto-asset accounts and safe deposit boxes. Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 will be applicable from 10 July 2027 (for some entities, the Regu - lation will only be applicable from 10 July 2029). Directive (EU) 2024/1640 must be transposed between 2025 and 2027 (with the exception of one provision, which needs to be transposed only by 10 July 2029). Compliance with the obligations foreseen in the above-mentioned rules will be monitored by the European Anti-Money Laundering Author - ity, created by Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 of 31 May 2024, which is also responsible for granting support to the financial intelligence units of the member states of the EU.
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