On August 7th, the Senate`s Finance Committee passed the bill that modernizes banking legislation (Exp. 11.269). The Committee is now working on the final text that compiles changes in the Financial Analysis Unit (FAU) and the Financial Market Commission (CMF) to fight money laundering and gives the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) more powers to request information on money transfers abroad exceeding US$10,000. When the Committee finishes with the report, the bill will be debated in the Senate`s floor. There is still no official confirmation, but it is presumed that this will happen next week (August 13th-17th).  It is expected that the Senate will pass it with modifications.The bill will then return to the Chamber of Deputies. If this Chamber accepts these new modifications it will become law, otherwise a Joint Committee will be created (made up of deputies and senators) to start its last debate before it becomes law.

The Committee’s meeting was attended by Finance Minister Felipe Larraín. You can access his presentation by clicking here. At the request of the Executive Branch, the Financial Market Commission (CMF) was included in the bill to evaluate the effectiveness of the controls applied by banks in the area of money laundering and financing of terrorism prevention. In cases where the CMF detects a deficiency in these controls, it must inform the Financial Analysis Unit (FAU), even in the case of information subject to banking secrecy.

The central objective of the bill is to comply with international requirements. It contemplates the possibility that notification to the customer may be omitted in situations where information is urgently needed or when notification to the holder may damage the course of the investigation.