Article 9
1.
Third-country jurisdictions which have strategic deficiencies in their national AML/CFT regimes that pose significant threats to the financial system of the Union (‘high-risk third countries’) shall be identified in order to protect the proper functioning of the internal market.
2.
The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 64 in order to identify high-risk third countries, taking into account strategic deficiencies in particular in the following areas:
(a)
the legal and institutional AML/CFT framework of the third country, in particular:
(i)
the criminalisation of money laundering and terrorist financing;
(ii)
measures relating to customer due diligence;
(iii)
requirements relating to record-keeping;
(iv)
requirements to report suspicious transactions;
(v)
the availability of accurate and timely information of the beneficial ownership of legal persons and arrangements to competent authorities;
(b)
the powers and procedures of the third country’s competent authorities for the purposes of combating money laundering and terrorist financing including appropriately effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions, as well as the third country’s practice in cooperation and exchange of information with Member States’ competent authorities;
(c)
the effectiveness of the third country’s AML/CFT system in addressing money laundering or terrorist financing risks.
3.
The delegated acts referred to in paragraph 2 shall be adopted within one month after the identification of the strategic deficiencies referred to in that paragraph.
4.
The Commission, when drawing up the delegated acts referred to in paragraph 2, shall take into account relevant evaluations, assessments or reports drawn up by international organisations and standard setters with competence in the field of preventing money laundering and combating terrorist financing.