Registered diamond companies should apply enhanced customer due diligence measures when their customers are domiciled, located in, or have any other links to one of the following two countries: Iran and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

On 19 February 2016, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) identified two countries that still pose a significant risk to the international financial system due to their lack of a comprehensive anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime. The FATF requires countermeasures to be taken for both countries.

This means that diamond companies should implement additional investigative measures for these countries above and beyond those that Belgian AML legislation requires.

Furthermore, diamond companies are requested to take into account the specific risks linked to the following countries when making their customer risk assessment: Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Guyana, Iraq, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Syria, Uganda, Vanuatu and Yemen.