Consultancy

Declaration of offsite Monitoring Questionnaire for Accountants

Posted on by Muhammad Waheed Ensari

Declaration of offsite Monitoring Questionnaire for Accountants

Declaration of offsite Monitoring Questionnaire for Accountants: ACCOUNTING POPULATION DETERMINATION SURVEY FORM

Does the accounting firm provide, now or in the future, any of the following services to clients? Check all that apply

  • Buying and selling of real estate
  • Managing of client money, securities or other assets
  • Management of bank, savings or securities accounts
  • Organization of contributions for the creation, operation or management of companies
  • Creating, operating or management of companies, trusts or waqf
  • Acting as a formation agent of legal persons
  • Buying and selling of business entities
  • Acting as a director or secretary of a company, a partner of a partnership
  • Arranging for another person to act as a director or secretary of a company, a partner of a partnership
  • Acting as a trustee of an express trust or performing the equivalent function for a waqf
  • Arranging for another person to act as a trustee of an express trust or performing the equivalent function for a waqf
  • Acting as a nominee shareholder for another person
  • Arranging for another person to act as a nominee shareholder for another person
  • Providing a registered office, business address or accommodation, correspondence or administrative address for a company, partnership, trust or waqf

INHERENT VULNERABILITIES

  • Entity Characteristics
  • For the purposes of serving its clients, does the entity maintain ongoing relationships with regulated financial institutions or other regulated professional service providers (e.g. referrals)?
Yes No

Products and Services

  • Does the entity offer any of the following products or services?
  • Sale of pre-formed companies to clients (shelf companies)
  • Formation of companies to hold assets
  • Formation of companies as layers in an ownership structure
  • Formation of companies with complex or opaque ownership
  • Acting as a nominee director of a client’s company
  • Arranging for another person to act as a nominee director of a client’s company
  • Formation of trusts/waqf as layers in an ownership structure
  • Formation of trusts/waqf with complex or opaque structures
  • Formation of trusts/waqf with undefined beneficiaries or classes of beneficiaries
  • Acting as the trustee of a client’s trust/waqf
  • Arranging for another person to act as a trustee of a client’s trust/waqf
  • Formation of companies, trusts or waqfs in jurisdictions outside Pakistan
  • Providing a registered office or a business address, a correspondence address, or an administrative address for a company, or a partnership, or any other legal person or arrangement
  • Managing client funds (other than sums paid as fees for professional services), accounts, securities, or other assets
  • Operational of pooled accounts of client funds
  • Transfer of beneficial interest in land or other real estate property
  • Transaction on behalf of a client in relation to creating, operating, and managing a company or trust/waqf
  • Transaction on behalf of any other person in relation to the buying, transferring, or selling of a company or trust/waqf
Yes No

What percentage of the entity’s business do the products and services listed above represent?

0% (None) 1%-10% 10%-25% 25%-50% 50%-75% 75%-100%

How many transactions (payment for services by a client) are processed each year on average?

Nature of Client Relationships

Does the entity maintain ongoing client relationships?

Yes No

How many new clients has the entity served in the past year?

How many existing clients has the entity served in the past year?

What percentage of the entity’s business are high-risk clients?

0% (None) 1%-10% 10%-25% 25%-50% 50%-75% 75%-100%

Which sorts of high-risk clients are served? (Check all that apply)

Domestic Politically Exposed Persons

Foreign Politically Exposed Persons

High Net Worth Individuals

Corporations or trusts with opaque or complex ownership

Clients with negative media articles

What percentage of the entity’s business is non-resident clients?

0% (None) 1%-10% 10%-25% 25%-50% 50%-75% 75%-100%

If the business has foreign clients, where are these clients located (country)? List the top 5

Geographic Reach

Does the entity have activities relating to high risk jurisdictions?

Yes No

Does the entity have activities relating to countries or areas of concern?

Yes No

What percentage of the entity’s activities relate to the high-risk jurisdictions and areas or countries of concern outlined above?

0% (None) 1%-10% 10%-25% 25%-50% 50%-75% 75%-100%

Delivery Channels

Does the entity have a non-face-to-face business model or onboard clients without face-to-face interaction?

Yes No

Does the entity use third party intermediaries or agents to onboard clients?

Yes No

Does the entity accept any of the following types of payments?

Yes No

MITIGATING CONTROLS

Risk Assessment

Enterprise Risk Assessment

Does the entity have a documented ML/TF risk assessment?

Yes No

Has the risk assessment considered different types of risk?

Yes No

Is the risk assessment reviewed and updated on a regular basis?

Yes No

Client Risk Assessment

Does the entity assign documented risk ratings to its clients or categories of clients?

Yes No

Has the risk assessment considered different drivers of client risk?

Yes No

Are customer risk ratings kept up to date?

Yes No

Policies, Procedures and Systems

Policies

Does the entity have a documented AML/CFT compliance program?

Yes No

Was the AML/CFT Policy developed to mitigate risks identified in the risk assessment?

Yes No

Are controls in place to prevent breaches of the AML/CFT Policy?

Yes No

How many breaches of the AML/CFT Policy have been identified?

Procedures and Systems

Has the entity put in place procedures or systems to support the implementation of the AML/CFT Policy?

Yes No

Are there procedures or systems in place to carry out obligations under the AML/CFT Policy?

Yes No

Are the entity’s procedures or systems updated periodically?

Yes No

Customer Due Diligence

 

 

Client Identification

Does the entity identify and verify all its clients’ identities in the situations required by the AMLA and FBR Regulations?

Yes No

Does the entity make and keep records of customer identification and verification?

Yes No

Check all that apply

Name

Address

Nationality and residency status

Occupation

Purpose of account

Third parties exerting control over the client

On how many occasions has the entity observed a potential client attempting to provide fraudulent identification documents?

Has the entity rejected clients with incomplete client identification and/or verification?

Yes No

If so, on how many occasions?

How many clients have not been identified or had their identify verified due to the likelihood of tipping off the client?

Legal Persons and Arrangements

Does the entity identify its clients who are legal persons and legal arrangements in the situations required in the AMLA and FBR Regulations?

Yes No

Does the entity identify and verify the identity of the natural person(s) representing the legal person or legal arrangement?

Yes No

Does the entity make and keep records of customer identification of legal persons and arrangements?

Yes No

Check all that apply

Name

Business address

Articles of Incorporation, Partnership Agreement, Trust Agreement etc.

Nature of business

Purpose of account

Does the entity identify and take reasonable measures to identify all ultimate beneficial owners who own 25% of more of the legal person or legal arrangement?

Yes No

Ongoing Due Diligence

Are client identification and beneficial ownership files kept up to date?

Yes No

If yes, how frequently are the files updated:

Multiple times per year Every year Every two years More than every two years Ad hoc/variable timeframe When there are changes to the client’s profile When there are changes to the business model or risk exposure When there are changes to the legislation or regulations

Is there ongoing due diligence to verify that transactions are consistent with the customer’s risk profile?

Yes No

Is the frequency and depth of ongoing due diligence conducted on the basis of client risk?

Yes No

Enhanced Measures

Identify High Risk Clients and Situations

Does the entity identify high risk clients and situations?

Yes No

Check all that apply

Foreign Politically Exposed Persons

Domestic Politically Exposed Persons

Legal persons with complex or opaque ownership structures

High net worth individuals

Non-face-to-face clients

Professional service providers

Non-profit organizations

Clients seeking aggressive tax planning

How many clients have been identified as foreign politically exposed persons?

How many clients have been identified as domestic politically exposed persons?

Does the entity identify and assess the risks of new technologies?

Yes No

Does the entity identify clients or transactions related to high risk countries or areas/countries of concern or the border areas of KP and Balochistan as well as South Punjab?

Yes No

How many transactions related to high risk countries or areas/countries of concern or the border areas of KP and Balochistan as well as South Punjab have taken place?

What is the value of those transactions (PKR)?

Have potential clients been rejected or existing clients been closed due to high risk factors?

Yes No

If yes, How many potential clients have been rejected?

If yes, How many existing clients have been closed?

Application of Enhanced Measures

Does the entity apply enhanced mitigating controls to address high risks?

Yes No

Check all that apply

Obtaining more information (client ID, beneficial ownership, transaction purpose etc)

Updating customer information more frequently

Taking reasonable measures to identify the client’s source of wealth and funds

Increasing the degree and level of transactions monitoring

Obtaining the approval of senior management of the business relationship

Is the application of enhanced measures variable in relation to the identified risk of the client or situation?

Yes No

Does the entity’s senior management have ongoing oversight re: high risk clients and situations?

Yes No

If yes, Is the entity’s senior management approval required prior to onboarding high risk clients and transacting in high risk situations?

Yes No

Targeted Financial Sanctions

Targeted Financial Sanctions Designated Persons Listings

Does the entity screen clients against the UN targeted financial sanctions designated lists for terrorist financing (UNSCR 1267 and its successor resolutions)?

Yes No

Does the entity screen clients against national-level targeted financial sanctions lists for terrorist financing?

Yes No

Which national lists are checked?

Notification/SRO by the Ministry of Interior/ NACTA or Ministry of Foreign Affairs

United States (OFAC)

United Kingdom

European Union

Other

Does the entity screen clients against the UN targeted financial sanctions lists for proliferation financing (UNSCR 1718 and its successor resolutions, and UNSCR 2231)?

Yes No

Targeted Financial Sanctions Screening Procedures

Are all new and existing clients checked against designated persons sanctions lists whenever the lists are updated?

Yes No

How is screening done?

Manually against the published listings Using in-house or third-party software solutions

Is there an ongoing customer scanning/filtering process (automated or manual) for the designated persons sanctions lists?

Yes No

What frequency is the client database scanned?

Multiple times per day

Once a day

Once a week

Once a month

Client database is not scanned on an ongoing basis

Other timeframe:

Are beneficial owners checked against the designated persons sanctions lists?

Yes No

Targeted Financial Sanctions Matches

Does the entity maintain records of name matches against targeted financial sanctions designated persons lists?

Yes No

Check all that apply

Records are maintained of all true matches

Records are maintained of all false positives

Does the entity have policies in place to determine whether matches against the designated persons sanctions lists are true hits?

Yes No

Does the entity have policies in place to report any positive matches against the designated persons sanctions lists to the competent authorities?

Yes No

Have any designated financial sanctions name matches been reported?

True matches have been reported to competent authorities True matches have not been reported to competent authorities No true matches have been determined

If matches have been reported, how many new client relationships have been rejected?

If matches have been reported, how many existing client relationships have been rejected?

If matches have been reported, what is the value of existing client assets that have been frozen?

Suspicious Transaction and Currency Transaction Reporting

Transaction Monitoring

Does the entity identify and monitor for suspicious transactions/activity?

Yes No

Check all that apply

Manually

Automatically

Does the entity have expected turnaround times to analyse suspicious transactions?

Yes No

If yes, what is the expected turnaround time from the time the transaction is processed (days):

Does the entity have a designated person responsible for filing suspicious transaction reports?

Yes No

Suspicious Transactions and Currency Transactions Reported

Has the entity reported suspicious transactions to the FIU?

Yes No

If yes, how many STRs have been filed:

Has the entity reported cash transactions to the FIU?

Yes No

If yes, how many CTRs have been filed:

Does the entity report attempted transactions that were not completed?

Yes No

Does the entity file STRs even when it does not suspect a specific crime that the transaction may be related to?

Yes No

Internal Controls

Compliance Officer

Has the entity appointed a compliance officer with responsibility for the implementation of the AML/CFT Policy and compliance program?

Yes No

Is the compliance officer at a management level?

Yes No

Does the compliance officer have access to all client and business files and records?

Yes No

 

Training

Does the entity have an AML/CFT training program?

Yes No

How is the training developed (check all that apply)

Developed in-house

Sourced from third parties

Does the training program cover the entirety of the AML/CFT compliance program?

Yes No

What does the training program cover (check all that apply)

Responsibilities of the entity and its employees under the AMLA/Regulations

Internal policies, procedures and processes

How to identify and report suspicious transactions to the FIU

Common methods used by money launderers and terrorist financiers

How many employees have AML/CFT responsibilities? (full-time equivalent positions):

Does every employee with AML/CFT responsibilities receive training?

Yes No

Who receives AML/CFT training (check all that apply)

Sole proprietor

New recruits

Frontline employees with customer interface

AML/CFT Compliance Officer and staff

Back office staff (if any)

Audit staff (if any)

Senior management (if any)

Board members (if any)

Audit

Is there an independent evaluation of the AML/CFT compliance program? (e.g. internal/external audit, or by staff)

Yes No

What frequency is audit?

Every year

Every two years

Other timeframe:

Does the audit program review all elements of the AML/CFT compliance program?

Yes No

Check all that apply

Does the audit function assess compliance with applicable laws, regulations and guidelines?

Does the audit function examine the adequacy of customer due diligence policies, procedures and processes?

Does the audit function perform testing (client files, unusual/suspicious transaction files, targeted financial sanctions name match files, etc.)?

Does the audit function examine the integrity and accuracy of information management and information technology systems used in the AML/CFT compliance program (including transaction monitoring systems if applicable)?

Yes No

 

Read more blogs here and to contact FBR click here.

Muhammad Waheed Ensari

Founder & CEO, BeSpoke Consulting and Training with 20+ Years of Professional Experience (International and National) in the field of Business Development, Taxation, Accounting, Finance & Auditing with good understanding of financial management system. Strong exposure in the field of general accounting, G/L maintenance, financial reporting and Internal control procedures. Expert in handling people of diverse nationalities, and renowned for being an excellent team player with a positive “can do” attitude. Energetic & self-motivated with a high degree of cultural sensitivity.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Click to listen highlighted text!