6. Amendment of section 4 of the principal enactment

Official English translation. Where it differs from the Sinhala or Tamil text, the Act itself says which text prevails.

Section 4 of the principal enactment is hereby amended as follows: -

(1)

by the repeal of subsection (1) of that section and the substitution therefor, of the following subsection: -

“(1) Every Institution shall maintain –

(a)

records of all transactions, both domestic and international, and records of correspondence relating to all transactions and records of all reports furnished to the

Financial Intelligence Unit, for a period of six years from the date

Financial Transactions Reporting of completion of the transaction, correspondence or furnishing of the report, as the case may be; and

(b)

records obtained or created as part of the customer due diligence process in terms of section 2, including the results of an analysis undertaken, risk assessments and customer account files and business correspondence, for a period of six years from the date of the closure of the account or cessation of the business relationship or in the absence of such a relationship, from the date of the occasional transaction, as the case may be, unless the Head of the Financial Intelligence

Unit has issued directions to the effect that such records should be retained for such longer period as specified by him, in which case such records shall be retained for such longer period.”;

(2)

in paragraph (f) of subsection (2) of that section, by the substitution for the words “specified in rules issued by the Financial Intelligence Unit.”, of the words “specified by rules issued by the

Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit.”; and

(3)

by the repeal of subsection (3) of that section and the substitution therefor, of the following subsection: -

“(3) Where any record is required to be maintained under this Act -

(a)

it shall be maintained in a manner and form that will enable an

Institution to comply promptly with requests for information from the Financial Intelligence Unit or a law enforcement agency;

(b)

a copy of it may be kept-

(i)

in a machine-readable form, if a paper copy can be readily produced from it;

(ii)

in an electronic form, if a paper copy can be readily produced from it and an electronic signature of the person who keeps the record is retained for the purposes of verification;

(iii)

in the form of an audio or video recording; and

(c)

it shall be maintained in a manner and form that will enable reconstruction of individual transactions for the purpose of furnishing evidence in criminal proceedings where necessary.”.

Read on from s 7