Resolution 66.23/2026/NQ-CP special mechanisms for anti-money laundering law implementation

RESOLUTION

Promulgating special mechanisms and policies for handling difficulties and obstacles in the anti-money laundering law to meet urgent requirements for implementation of international commitments on exchange of information upon tax-related requests

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government No. 63/2025/QH15;

Pursuant to the Law No. 46/2010/QH12 on the State Bank of Vietnam;

Pursuant to the Anti-Money Laundering Law No. 14/2022/QH15;

Pursuant to the Resolution No. 206/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly on mechanisms for handling of difficulties and obstacles caused by law regulations;

At the proposal of the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam and the Minister of Finance;

The Government hereby promulgates the Resolution promulgating special mechanisms and policies for handling difficulties and obstacles in the anti-money laundering law to meet urgent requirements for implementation of international commitments on exchange of information upon tax-related requests.

Article 1. Scope of regulation and subjects of application

1. This Resolution defines special mechanisms and policies for handling difficulties and obstacles in the anti-money laundering law to meet urgent requirements for implementation of international commitments on exchange of information upon tax-related requests.

2. This Resolution amends and supplements a number of provisions of the 2022 Anti-Money Laundering Law and its guiding documents related to the term of beneficial owner, know-your-customer, verification of know-your-customer, transparency of information on legal arrangements, criteria for identification of beneficial owners, classification of customers by risk level, and frequency of updating know-your-customer.

3. This Decree applies to state agencies, organizations, and individuals involved in the observance of the regulations in Clause 2 of this Article.

Article 2. Promulgating special mechanisms and policies for removing difficulties and obstacles in the implementation of the 2022 Anti-Money Laundering Law and its guiding documents

1. To amend and supplement Clause 7 Article 3 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law No. 14/2022/QH15 as follows:

“7. A beneficial owner means one or more individuals who directly or indirectly have ultimate actual control over, or ownership of a customer, including a legal arrangement, or individuals for whom the customer conducts transactions.”.

2. To add Clause 4 after Clause 3 Article 10 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law as follows:

“4. In addition to the know-your-customer information specified in Clauses 1, 2 and 3 of this Article, reporting entities shall collect other information in the following specific cases:

a) When a customer participates in a legal arrangement in the form of trust, the reporting entity shall collect the following information: full and abbreviated transaction names (for an institutional trustee) or name of the trustee (for an individual trustee); head office address of the institutional trustee, nationality address of the individual trustee; registration/licensing information granted by a foreign competent agency to the trustee (if any); structure of the trust; information on the names and identification numbers of the trustor, beneficiary or group of beneficiaries, potential beneficiary, protector (if any), any individuals with ultimate controlling rights over the trust, and other related persons (if any).

In case a customer participates in a legal arrangement in another form of a nature similar to a trust, the reporting entity shall collect information on all parties holding roles equivalent to those in the trust mentioned above;

b) The reporting entity shall identify and collect information on the beneficiary of a life insurance contract as soon as the beneficiary is designated by the insurance buyer or the insured.

In case the beneficiary is an individual, a legal person or a legal arrangement, the collected information shall include the full name or full transaction name of the beneficiary.

In case of group insurance, the collected information shall include the beneficiary’s personal papers, documents proving the relationship with the insured, and other necessary documents enabling the reporting entity to identify the beneficiary at the time of payment.

Verification of information on the beneficiary must be conducted at the time of payment.”.

3. To amend and supplement Clause 1 Article 12 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law as follows:

“1. Reporting entities may use materials and data to verify know-your-customer information, including:

a) For an individual customer: a valid identity card, electronic identity, citizen identity card or passport; other documents issued by competent agencies, and documents proving representative capacity (if any);

b) For an institutional customer: a valid establishment license, establishment decision or enterprise registration certificate; electronic identification account, decision on reorganization, dissolution, bankruptcy or termination of operation of the organization (if any); charter of the organization (if any); decisions on appointment or contracts on hiring of the general director or director and chief accountant or person in charge of accounting (if any); documents and data related to the founder and at-law representative, authorized representative of the organization, and the beneficial owner;

c) For a customer participating a legal arrangement: document on formulation of the legal arrangement; document on registration of the legal arrangement (if any) and other documents related to the establishment of the legal arrangement (if any);

d) Documents, data and other relevant reliable information sources.”.

4. To amend and supplement Article 22 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law as follows:

“Article 22. Transparency of information on legal arrangements

1. The trustee in a legal arrangement in the form of a trust shall collect and update identification information on the trustor, trustee, beneficiary or group of beneficiaries, potential beneficiary, protector (if any), and any individuals with ultimate controlling rights over the trust (if any).

In case the related parties in the legal arrangement mentioned above are legal persons or legal arrangements, the information to be collected and updated shall include basic information and information on the beneficial owners of such legal persons or legal arrangements.

2. The party holding a role equivalent to that of the trustee in a legal arrangement in another form of a nature similar to a trust shall collect and update identification information on the parties holding roles equivalent to those in the form of trust specified in Clause 1 of this Article.

In case the related parties in a legal arrangement in another form of a nature similar to a trust are legal persons or legal arrangements, the information to be collected and updated shall include basic information and information on the beneficial owners of such legal persons or legal arrangements.

3. In addition to the information collected under Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article, the trustee or the party holding a role equivalent to that of the trustee shall collect basic information on other regulated agents or service providers of the legal arrangement (if any).

4. The information specified in Clauses 1, 2 and 3 of this Article must be retained for at least 05 years from the time the trustee or the party holding a role equivalent to that of the trustee ceases to participate in the operation of the legal arrangement.

5. In the course of performing their functions and tasks of state management of money laundering prevention and combat or carrying out investigation, prosecution and trial, the State Bank of Vietnam and competent state agencies may request organizations and individuals to provide the information specified in Clauses 1, 2 and 3 of this Article.”.

5. To amend and supplement Article 7 of the Government's Decree No. 19/2023/ND-CP dated April 28, 2023, on detailing a number of articles of the Anti-Money Laundering Law as follows:

“Article 7. Criteria for identification of beneficial owners

1. The beneficial owner for its/his/her customer being an individual shall be identified as follows:

a) In case the customer opens an account, the reporting entity shall identify one or more individuals who have ultimate actual ownership of the account or ultimate actual control over the operation of such account;

b) In case the customer establishes a relationship or conducts a transaction with the reporting entity, the reporting entity shall identify one or more last individuals who have the actual control over such relationship or transaction.

2. The beneficial owner for its/his/her customer being an organization shall be identified as follows:

a) An individual who holds, directly or indirectly, or both directly and indirectly, at least 25% of the charter capital or at least 25% of the total voting shares of the customer.

An indirect owner means an individual who holds at least 25% of the charter capital or at least 25% of the total voting shares of the customer through another organization or legal arrangement. The reporting entity must review each layer in the customer’s ownership structure to identify the beneficial owner.

In case a group of individuals related to one another through personal relationships or contracts collectively holds, directly or indirectly, or both directly and indirectly, at least 25% of the charter capital or at least 25% of the total voting shares of the customer, the reporting entity shall identify the individuals in such group as the beneficial owners of the customer;

b) In case no individual or group of individuals is identified according to the criteria at Point a Clause 2 of this Article, or in case there is doubt that the individuals identified according to the criteria defined at Point a Clause 2 of this Article are not the beneficial owners of the customer, the reporting entity shall identify the individual who controls the customer through other methods provided by law or existing in fact. Control shall be exercised through one or more rights such as: appointing, relieving from duty or removing from office the majority or all members or the chairperson of the board of directors, the majority or all members or the chairperson of the members’ council, the Director, General Director, or other management and executive bodies of the organization; amending or supplementing the charter of the organization; changing the organizational structure; deciding financial, investment and operational policies of the organization; reorganizing or dissolving the organization;

c) In case no individual or group of individuals is identified in accordance with Points a and b Clause 2 of this Article, the reporting entity shall identify the individual holding the senior management position with the greatest authority to act on behalf of the organization, except an individual representing state capital in the organization;

d) In case the organization is an enterprise listed on domestic or foreign securities markets and the reporting entity is able to access information on its beneficial owner, and information on the beneficial owner of the organization has been disclosed, the reporting entity shall identify the beneficial owner as such disclosed individual.

3. The beneficial owners of a customer that is a fund (established under foreign law regulations) shall include individuals holding the following roles: founder, member of the fund management council, beneficiary or group of beneficiaries, and any individual who directly or indirectly exercises the right to ultimate control over the fund as provided by law or in fact.

In case any of the roles specified above is held by an organization or a legal arrangement, the beneficial owner of such organization or legal arrangement shall be identified as the beneficial owner of the fund.

In case the beneficiaries of the fund are designated by criteria or by group, the reporting entity shall identify the criteria for the persons or group of beneficiaries of the fund so that the identity of the beneficiaries can be determined at the time of payment.

4. The beneficial owner of a legal arrangement shall be identified as follows:

a) For a legal arrangement in the form of a trust, the beneficial owners shall include: the trustor, trustee, beneficiary or group of beneficiaries, potential beneficiary, protector (if any), and any individual who directly or indirectly has the ultimate control over the trust as provided by law or in fact.

In case the beneficiaries of the legal arrangement are designated by criteria or by group, the reporting entity shall identify the criteria for the persons or group of beneficiaries of the legal arrangement so that the identity of the beneficiaries can be determined at the time of payment, the time the beneficiaries intend to exercise the established rights, the end of the accumulation period, or the time the trustee exercises the discretion under the arrangement;

b) For a legal arrangement in another form of a nature similar to a trust, the beneficial owners shall include persons holding roles equivalent to those in the form of trust specified at Point a Clause 4 of this Article;

c) In case the related parties in the legal arrangement are legal persons or legal arrangements, the reporting entity must identify the beneficial owners of such legal persons or legal arrangements.

5. The beneficial owner of a life insurance contract means the individual who actually benefits from the insured’s benefits under the life insurance contract.”.

6. To amend and supplement a number of points and clauses of Article 4 of the Circular No. 27/2025/TT-NHNN dated September 15, 2025 of the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Anti-Money Laundering Law

a) To amend and supplement Point c Clause 1 as follows:

“c) Classification of customers by money laundering risk levels (low, medium and high) based on the following factors: customers themselves; products and services customers are using or intend to use; geographic areas where customers reside or are headquartered and other factors determined and classified by the reporting entity itself as suitable to the reality and specified in the risk management process. Classification of customers according to levels of money laundering risks shall be carried out immediately or within 10 working days from the time of conducting know-your-customer activities in accordance with the Anti-Money Laundering Law.”.  

b) To amend and supplement Point b Clause 2 as follows:

“b) Update know-your-customer information at least once every 5 years or upon the emergence of new risks, or upon being aware of any change in the know-your-customer information.”.

c) To add Point d after Point c Clause 2 as follows:

“d) Enhanced know-your-customer measures must be applied in case of suspicion related to money laundering, financing of terrorism or financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, or for cases coinciding with scenarios or high-risk situations suspected of being related to money laundering, financing of terrorism, or financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as determined by the reporting entity.”.

d) To amend and supplement Clause 4 as follows:

“4. For customers with a medium level of money laundering risk, reporting entities must apply know-your-customer measures in accordance with the Anti-Money Laundering Law and the Government’s Decree detailing a number of articles of the Anti-Money Laundering Law, and update know-your-customer information at least once every 2 years, upon the emergence of new risks, or upon being aware of any change in the know-your-customer information.”.

dd) To amend and supplement Point e Clause 5 as follows:

“e) Update know-your-customer information at least once every 1 years or upon the emergence of new risks, or upon being aware of any change in the know-your-customer information.”.

Article 3. Organization of implementation and effect

1. This Resolution takes effect on July 24, 2026 until the end of February 28, 2027.

2. In case the Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on the State Bank of Vietnam No. 46/2010/QH12, the Anti-Money Laundering Law No. 14/2022/QH15 and the Law on Credit Institutions No. 32/2024/QH15; the Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 19/2023/ND-CP dated April 28, 2023 detailing a number of articles of the Anti-Money Laundering Law; and the Circular amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circular No. 27/2025/TT-NHNN dated September 15, 2025 guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Anti-Money Laundering Law take effect before March 01, 2027, the articles and clauses of this Resolution whose contents are amended, supplemented or replaced by the aforementioned documents shall cease to be effective from the time such documents take effect.

3. During the effective period of this Resolution, if the provisions in this Resolution differ from those in other relevant legal normative documents, this Resolution shall prevail.

4. Information, dossiers, documents and data related to beneficial owners that have been collected, updated, verified, retained or provided in accordance with law regulations before this Resolution takes effect shall remain legally valid and be used in accordance with law regulations. The expiration of this Resolution shall not give rise to an obligation to repeat the work that has been lawfully performed in accordance with this Resolution, unless otherwise prescribed by law regulations.

5. Organization of implementation:

a) Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, chairpersons of People’s Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities, and related organizations and individuals shall implement this Resolution.

b) The State Bank of Vietnam shall act as the focal agency assisting the Government and the Prime Minister in receiving, consolidating and handling related issues; assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with relevant ministries and sectors in, promptly monitoring, guiding and providing responses to remove difficulties and obstacles arising during the implementation of this Resolution.