Inga Vaitkunskaitė Your ref 07.01.2021
[email protected] Our ref 21.01.2021 no 1.2-2/3-2
Tumeno str. 4, Eastern entrance, 5th floor
LT-01109 Vilnius, Lithuania
Dear Mrs. Vaitkunskaite,
We thank you for your questions regarding Estonian Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing
Prevention Act. We hereby give answers to your questions forwarded January 7th.
You have brought out that your client has a currency operator license if you mean license for
foreign exchange service than we would like to bring out that in order to provide services of
virtual currency your client must apply for the license of virtual currency service provider.
Information that is more detailed is available in paragraphs 70-75 of the Money Laundering and
Terrorist Financing Prevention Act.
Your first question is regarding the reporting duty of transactions equal or exceeding 15 000
euros. There is no mandatory reporting duty related to the 15 000 euros. If possible can you
please reference us the source of such information. The threshold of 15 000 euros is stipulated in
paragraphs 19 and 31 of the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act.
Paragraph 19 stipulates regulation regarding applying due diligence measures in transactions that
are done outside of a business relationship but this does not apply for virtual currency service
provider. That is because of paragraph 25 of the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing
Prevention Act, which stipulates that, amongst others, virtual currency service providers must
apply due diligence measures from smaller threshold (from zero regarding identification and
other due diligence measures from 1000 euros).
Paragraph 31 stipulates that there is a possibility of identification of person using technology
means and it is possible to the limit of 15 000 euros a month regarding natural persons. If the
sum exceeds 15 000 the client must be identified with physical presence of the client. Reporting
of the fact to the FIU is not required.
The duty to report to the FIU comes from paragraph 49 of the Money Laundering and Terrorist
Financing Prevention Act. Obliged entity is required to report suspicion of money laundering or
terrorist financing and failure of applying due diligence measures. The only report regarding
thresholds is reports regarding cash transactions of sums equal or exceeding 32 000 euros.
Guidance papers, regarding due diligence and following AML regulation, can be accessed from
the FIU-s website: https://www.fiu.ee/oigusaktid-ja-juhendid/juhendid or from the FSA-s
website: https://www.fi.ee/sites/default/files/2018-11/FI_AML_Soovituslik_juhend.pdf (the
document is for credit and financial institutions but there is a draft paper which would equalize
virtual currency service providers with financial authorities
Pronksi str 12 / 10117 Tallinn / ESTONIA / (+372) 612 3840 /
[email protected] / www.fiu.ee
Register code 77001412
http://eelnoud.valitsus.ee/main/mount/docList/f4deaf4f-7351-4384-b3ae-
aaa9621bf050?activity=1#JFF1TZz2 ).
If you have any further questions regarding providing virtual currency services in Estonia please
contact the FIU (contact information available at the bottom of the page), if you have questions
regarding providing other financial services we would recommend you to contact the FSA
(https://fi.ee/et/finantsinspektsioon/kontaktid).
Yours sincerely
Marget Lundava
Acting Head of FIU Estonia
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