Financial Controls for Auditors and Attorneys

A bill will be presented to the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala to require public accountants, auditors, lawyers and notaries to report their transactions.

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

The bill seeking to broaden the scope of regulated persons’ subject to money laundering control, which will be presented by the Superintendence of Banks (SIB), is aimed primarily at professionals as individuals, but will also include real estate companies, vehicle agencies and casinos.

Superintendent Erick Armando Vargas Sierra explained to Prensalibre.com that "... these measures are part of the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force of Latin America (Gafilat) of which Guatemala is a part. The bill would be ready in the following weeks to be presented to Congress and to become effective next year.

Vargas added that "... We seek to create more controls (such as professional activity) and that they report when reviewing the accounts of individuals or companies could provide an alert, like law firms."

On the other hand, the public accountant and auditor Óscar Chile Monroy, explained that although he is not aware of the initiative, if it is addressed "... to public accounting firms, they only check the balance sheets, but they do not determine the origin of the money, which is a competence of the Intendencia de Verificación Especial (IVE), attached to the SIB. The public accountants only audit the financial balances, but we do not have the power to determine the origin of the money."

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