Thailand’s Anti-Money Laundering Office has released new guidelines on customer due diligence (CDD) for insurance companies to outline anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing measures based on the Anti-Money Laundering Act B.E. 2542 (1999). The previous guidelines were revoked and replaced by these guidelines.

The guidelines include seven key measures:

1. Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing policy: Insurance companies must establish a policy in Thai that outlines the organization’s approach to assessing, managing, and mitigating risks related to money laundering, terrorism financing, and proliferation.
2. Risk management framework: Insurance companies’ frameworks for risk management are to be divided into three stages: (1) internal risk management, (2) risk assessment before customer onboarding, and (3) ongoing customer risk management.
3. CDD before engagement with customers: Insurance companies must implement a rigorous approval process to verify customers’ identities.
4. Customer information review and transaction monitoring: Insurance companies must update customer information and the list of banned transactions to ensure compliance with current risk profiles.
5. Enhanced CDD for high-risk clients: Insurance companies must apply a stricter level of verification and monitoring measures for high-risk clients, including reviews of financial transactions.
6. Third-party reliance and subsidiary controls: Reliance on third parties is allowed only in processes for customer identification and verification of identity. Internal controls and policies for subsidiaries or affiliates must be updated regularly.
7. Suspicious transaction reporting: Insurance companies must report any suspicious transactions, particularly whenever CDD is not available.

For more details on the CDD guidelines, or on any aspect of insurance and anti-money laundering regulations in Thailand, please contact Athistha (Nop) Chitranukroh at [email protected], Witchupong Chittchang at [email protected], Ajaree Trachukul at [email protected], or Sireethorn Wijan at [email protected].