Private banks and fund firms in Luxembourg will soon have to make suspicious activity reports on a new system.

Luxembourg’s financial intelligence unit has acquired a new IT system that became operational last month. The FIU has announced that this system allows for the ‘e-filing’ of suspicious activity reports and is being tested in close co-operation with the private sector. The reporting side of the system is to ‘go live’ sometime in the summer months. A new online reporting form will also be issued, although FIU Luxembourg has long been able to receive and process SARs in an electronic format. 

Unusually for the European continent, reporting is required on activity rather than on mere transactions – a ‘gold plated’ interpretation of the European Union’s third directive on the subject of money-laundering. Elsewhere in the EU, including the UK where the authorities pretend otherwise, only transactions need be reported. 

The part of Luxembourg’s money-laundering law that makes the jurisdiction different from its neighbours is Article 5 (co-operation requirements with the authorities) which states that "professionals, their directors, officers and employees are required to inform without delay, on their own initiative, the financial intelligence unit of the office of the state prosecutor at the Luxembourg district court when they know, suspect or have reasonable grounds to suspect that money laundering or terrorist financing is being committed or has been committed or attempted, in particular in consideration of the person concerned, its development, the origin of the funds, the purpose, nature and procedure of the operation."