G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group Asset Tracing Country Profiles In June 2012, the ACWG completed a survey, based on a questionnaire by the World Bank, on asset tracing in G20 countries that resulted in a compendium of country profiles. In view of the significant developments that took place over the last five years in the areas of transparency of beneficial ownership, it was time to update these country profiles. In this regard the G20 Anti- Corruption Implementation Plan 2017-2018 specifically provides that countries will share their practices and experiences on how they access, in a timely fashion, up-to-date information held by banks on beneficial ownership of bank accounts . There are different means of effectively achieving the objective of identifying this information. Common tools include information requests from authorities or the establishment of a central- ized account register or an equivalent data retrieval system. The update of the Asset Tracing Country Profiles is supposed to offer a general stocktaking on the recent handling in the G20 Countries. I A. ARGENTINA ............................................................................................................................................................... 1 B. AUSTRALIA .............................................................................................................................................................. 19 C. BRAZIL ....................................................................................................................................................................... 26 D. CANADA .................................................................................................................................................................... 32 E. CHINA ........................................................................................................................................................................ 37 F. FRANCE ..................................................................................................................................................................... 43 G. GERMANY ................................................................................................................................................................ 52 H. INDIA .......................................................................................................................................................................... 66 I. INDONESIA.............................................................................................................................................................. 72 J. ITALY .......................................................................................................................................................................... 79 K. JAPAN ......................................................................................................................................................................... 90 L. MEXICO ..................................................................................................................................................................... 96 M. NETHERLANDS.................................................................................................................................................... 106 N. NORWAY................................................................................................................................................................. 112 O. RUSSIA ..................................................................................................................................................................... 115 P. SAUDI ARABIA ..................................................................................................................................................... 124 Q. SOUTH AFRICA .................................................................................................................................................... 136 R. SOUTH KOREA ..................................................................................................................................................... 175 S. SPAIN ........................................................................................................................................................................ 183 T. TURKEY ................................................................................................................................................................... 189 U. UNITED KINGDOM ............................................................................................................................................ 197 V. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ..................................................................................................................... 205 II A. ARGENTINA 1. How to find out if a natural or legal person holds or controls bank accounts in the country? Upon the Section 1.7 of the Central Bank (BCRA) Compilation of AML measures (BCRA communica- tion “A” N° 5162), banking and foreign exchange institutions are required to maintain several data- bases on a wide range of operations that individually or through a series of related transactions ex- ceed ARS 30 000 (near than USD 6,600), including transactions related to cash deposits, purchase of sale of foreign currency, deposits of securities, depositions of negotiable instruments, etc. The data- base must include the transactions made in the last five years and must be at the disposal of the BCRA within 48 hours. According with Law 21.526, Argentina has a bank secrecy system for the operations where the banks take deposits from the public (passive operations). For that reason financial institutions must lift fi- nancial secrecy only in the context of a suspicious transaction report (STR), in which case the bank secrecy is not opposed to the Financial Intelligence Unit. Without an STR, apart from BCRA and the Tax Agency (AFIP), the secrecy may be lift by a court order in case another institution from the State wants to access the financial information detained by banks. Operations in which banks place money (active operations) are not covered by the bank secrecy. Through the Central Bank of Argentina, the FIU has access to financial system debtors (natural or legal persons) with the Argentinean financial system, rejected checks, checks reported as stolen or lost as well as information about outstanding tax provincial debts. This information may be available as well to other institutions of Argentina even without a court order. There is no central registry of bank accounts in Argentina. If an authority wants to find out if a natural or legal person holds a bank account in the country, there is no immediate tool. A court order sent to all financial institutions through the BCRA seems to be the only way to find out. Through its rules for preventing AML/CFT the Central Bank established, in the Communication "A" 6090, that all banks and foreign exchange entities subject to its control must maintain, at the dispos- al of this Agency, a database with the information corresponding to the clients that perform a wide range of operations higher than $240,000, (USD 14,000) during a one-month period1. This database 1 Whether perfected in one operation or several 1 must include information corresponding to the last 5 years and must be made available to the BCRA within 48 hours. By the Central Bank rules No. "A" 4353, all financial institutions must operate under the premise of the "know your client" principle. Under these rules, entities must pay attention to prevent clients from using corporate vehicles as a method to carry out their operations. The bank must have proce- dures to know the structure of the company, determine the source of its funds and identify the own- ers, beneficiaries and those who exercise real control of the legal entity. Following the revision of the FATF standards, this year the FUI issued its Resolution No. 30/2017, which changes the criteria for AML/CFT prevention, moving from a formalistic regulatory compliance approach to a risk-based approach, to ensure that measures implemented are proportionate to iden- tified risks. Through such approach, competent authorities, financial institutions and designated nonfinancial activities and professions should be able to ensure that adequate measures to prevent or mitigate AML/CFT correspond to identified risks are in place. This, in order to ensure that the measures im- plemented are proportional to the risks identified. The FIU requires these subjects to take the appropriate measures to carry out an assessment of their risks, in relation to their clients, the geographical areas in which they operate, the products and ser- vices they provide, the operations they perform, etc. And, at the same time, they must have policies, controls and procedures that allow them to effectively manage and mitigate identified risks. The new regulation includes the obligation of control and report even of de banks accounts used by public and official organizations. For the purposes of identifying clients, concepts such as risk assessment, client, due diligence, desig- nated subjects, corporate governance, prevention guidelines, suspicious operations, Politically Ex- posed Persons and operations reports, among others, have been defined. a) Has your country established a centralized account register or equivalent data retrieval system? No. b) Does