Anti-Money Laundering Act (Geldwäschegesetz – GwG)
Act on the detection of proceeds from serious crimes – Money Laundering Act
Status:
Most recently amended by Article 269 of the regulation of 19 June 2020, Federal Law Gazette 2020 I page 1328
Indirect amendment by Article 154a no. 3(a) of the Act of 20 November 2019 I 1626 cannot be implemented because the amended Act of 21 June 2019 Federal Law Gazette I page 846 had already entered into force effective 1 November 2019 when the indirect amendment legislation entered into force
Replaces Act 7613-2 of 13 August 2008 (Federal Law Gazette 2008 I page 1690) (GwG 2008)
Unofficial table of contents
| Title | Version date |
| Act on the detection of proceeds from serious crimes | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Table of contents | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Part 1 Definitions and obliged entities | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 1 Definitions | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 2 Obliged entities, power to issue statutory instruments | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 3 Beneficial owner | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Part 2 Risk management | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 4 Risk management | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 5 Risk analysis | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 6 Internal controls and safeguards | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 7 Money laundering officer | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 8 Record-keeping and retention requirement | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 9 Group-wide requirements | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Part 3 Customer due diligence requirements | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 10 General due diligence requirements | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 11 Identification | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 11a Processing of personal data by obliged entities | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 12 Identity verification, power to issue statutory instruments | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 13 Identity verification procedures, power to issue statutory instruments | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 14 Simplified due diligence requirements, power to issue statutory instruments | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 15 Enhanced due diligence requirements, power to issue statutory instruments | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 16 Special requirements governing online gambling services | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 17 Performance of due diligence by third parties, contractual outsourcing | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Part 4 Transparency register | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 18 Establishment of the transparency register and the registrar entity | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 19 Information on the beneficial owner | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 20 Transparency obligations regarding certain associations | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 21 Transparency obligations regarding certain legal arrangements | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 22 Accessible documents and transmission of data to the transparency register, power to issue statutory instruments | 10 Jul. 2018 |
| Section 23 Inspection of the transparency register, power to issue statutory instruments | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 23a Reporting discrepancies to the registrar entity | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 24 Fees and charges, power to issue statutory instruments | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 25 Transfer of the administration of the transparency register, power to issue statutory instruments | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 26 European system for the interconnection of registers, power to issue statutory instruments | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Part 5 Financial Intelligence Unit (Zentralstelle für Finanztransaktionsuntersuchungen) | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 27 German Financial Intelligence Unit | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 28 Functions, supervision and cooperation | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 29 Processing of personal data by the German Financial Intelligence Unit | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 30 Receipt and analysis of reports | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 31 Right to obtain information from domestic public authorities, right of access to data | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 32 Obligation to transmit data to domestic public authorities | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 33 Exchange of data with member states of the European Union | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 34 Information requests in the framework of international cooperation | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 35 Data transmission in the framework of international cooperation | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 36 Automated data reconciliation in a European network | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 37 Rectification, restriction of processing and deletion of personal data in the case of automated processing and in the case of storage in automated files | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 38 Rectification, restriction of processing and destruction of personal data which is neither processed by automated means nor stored in an automated file | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 39 Order opening a file | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 40 Urgent measures | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 41 Feedback to reporting obliged entities | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 42 Notification by domestic public authorities to the German Financial Intelligence Unit | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Part 6 Obligations concerning the reporting of matters | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 43 Reporting obligation of obliged entities, power to issue statutory instruments | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 44 Reporting obligation of supervisory authorities | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 45 Form of reporting, registration requirement, performance by third parties, power to issue statutory instruments | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 46 Carrying out of transactions | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 47 Prohibition of disclosure, power to issue statutory instruments | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 48 Exemption from liability | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 49 Access to information and protection of reporting employees | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Part 7 Supervision, cooperation, administrative fine provisions, data protection | 23 Jun. 2017 |
| Section 50 Competent supervisory authority | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 51 Supervision | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 51a Processing of personal data by supervisory authorities | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 52 Cooperation obligations | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 53 Reports of contraventions | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 54 Duty of confidentiality | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 55 Cooperation with other authorities | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 56 Administrative fine provisions | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 57 Publication of final and conclusive measures and of unappealable administrative fine decisions | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 58 (Repealed) | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Section 59 Transitional provisions | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Annex 1 (to sections 5, 10, 14 and 15) Factors indicating a potentially lower risk | 12 Dec. 2019 |
| Annex 2 (to sections 5, 10, 14 and 15) Factors indicating a potentially higher risk | 12 Dec. 2019 |