Anti-money laundering registration

Regional State Administrative Agencies keep a register of businesses and operators that are subject to the Finnish Anti-Money Laundering Act. The information is in the public domain, and anyone can access the register without creating an account. A link to the register is provided at the bottom of this page.

All the operators that are our responsibility must have their details included in one of our registers or in the licence list. We keep separate registers of, for example, licensed pawnshops. As long as an operator’s details are included in one of our registers, there is no need to register specifically for anti-money laundering purposes. Operators that do not need to register separately include pawnshops, holders of licences for the collection of debts referred to in the Act on Debt Collection Licences, real estate agencies and housing rental agencies. Everyone else we supervise must register in the money laundering supervision register.

See our list of operators that fall within the enforcement authority of Regional State Administrative Agencies.

We have prepared an online form that you can use to have your details entered into our money laundering supervision register. A link to the form is provided at the bottom of this page.

Follow these steps:

1. Open Regional State Administrative Agencies’ customer service portal. 

2. Click on ‘Money laundering supervision register’.

3. Log into the portal. Logging in to the online service requires strong identification. You can use a certificate card, a mobile certificate or your personal online banking details. Do not use your business banking details.
4. Start by reading the terms and conditions. Confirm that you accept the terms and conditions and then click ‘Start’.
5. Basic information about your business and your contact details: Check your contact information and make any necessary changes or additions. Click the green ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the page. Do NOT click the ‘Close’ button unless you want to discard your application! Make sure to fill in all the fields that are marked with an asterisk.
6. Regardless of whether you are self-employed or represent a business or an organisation, start by entering your or your organisation’s business ID and then click ‘Find’. If you represent a business or an organisation, you must have authorisation to do so. To indicate that you have authorisation, tick the ‘I am authorised to represent this business/organisation’ box. If your authorisation to represent the business or organisation in question is not evident from the Trade Register, you must prove your authorisation by emailing a power of attorney to the registry of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland at [email protected]. If you are self-employed, remember to also tick the ‘I am self-employed’ box.
7. Click ‘Proceed’ to start filling in your application.

It usually takes two weeks to process an application, but delays are possible if a lot of applications are submitted at the same time or if further enquiries are needed. Your company can continue to operate normally during the processing of the application. 

The application to the money laundering supervision register is subject to a fee. The registration fee is lower if the application is submitted in the e-service. 
To find up-to-date information on fees, go to:  Fees and charges.

An obligation management report, used to assess actors’ reliability, is a prerequisite for registering business service providers and currency exchange services. The registration fee is higher for business service providers and foreign exchange services because of the obligation management report. 

Registration is not subject to administrative costs in addition to the one-off registration fee. In addition, no fee is charged for changes to the register data, except for changes concerning responsible persons for a business service provider or currency exchange service.

You will be billed separately for the registration fee. The fees are based on government decrees.

Fees are enforceable without a court order.

You can tip us off if you suspect that an operator that falls within our enforcement authority is violating the Anti-Money Laundering Act.  

You can find a list of operators that fall within the enforcement authority of Regional State Administrative Agencies under ‘Who does Regional State Administrative Agency supervise under the Anti-Money Laundering Act’.

File a report in our online reporting tool. You can find a link to the reporting tool at the bottom of this website. We will protect your identity and will not disclose your personal details to the operator that you are reporting.

We use reports of suspected violations to identify high-risk operators for enforcement purposes. We have no obligation to disclose the action we take based on a report to the person who submitted the report. 

Note that a suspicious transaction must be reported to the Financial Intelligence Unit of the National Bureau of Investigation, not to the Regional State Administrative Agency.  

We encourage anyone who suspects that the provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering Act are being violated to get in contact with their nearest Regional State Administrative Agency.

You can report, for example, your employer or an operator that provides goods or services to you. It is always better to report a potential violation than not to report it. You do not need to be able to prove your suspicions. 

All kinds of violations of the Anti-Money Laundering Act can be reported. This includes, for example, an operator’s failure to  

• perform a proper risk assessment, 
• observe the know-your-customer rules,  
• ask customers for proof of identity, 
• investigate and report suspicious transactions, or 
• stop or refuse to execute a transaction that is suspicious or potentially linked to terrorist financing.

Even business secrets can be reported to the authorities if doing so is in the public interest and necessary to expose fraudulent or illegal activity. 

The more information you are able to provide about a potential violation of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, the easier it will be for us to determine what action to take.

 

Try to include at least

• the name of the business or organisation that you wish to report,
• the industry in which they operate, 
• the place of business where you believe the violation was committed, 
• the timeframe of the violation (including whether it is ongoing), 
• a description of how the violation was committed, and 
• your role in the organisation, i.e. whether you are an employee, a customer or otherwise connected to the operator.

If your operations are subject to the reporting obligation, you must know your customers and monitor the customer relationship throughout its duration. The monitoring must be comprehensive enough that you are able to detect deviations from the customer relationship’s typical transactions. 

If you notice an abnormal transaction, you must examine the basis and purpose of the transaction in further detail and, if necessary, the origin of the assets related to the transaction. A transaction can be unusual, for example, if it does not fit the customer’s profile or is different from the customer’s previous transactions.  

To test whether a transaction should be considered unusual, you can compare it against 

• transactions that are typical of the industry, 
• transactions that are typical of other similar customers, or 
• typical transactions involving other similar products or services.  

If your conclusion is that there is something suspicious about the transaction, report it immediately to the National Bureau of Investigation’s Financial Intelligence Unit. Even the slightest suspicions must be reported. It is not your responsibility to determine whether or not a crime has been committed. 

Always file a report if: 

• the transaction still appears suspicious after you have received an explanation from the customer, 
• you decide to refuse a transaction based on its unusual or suspicious nature, or 
• you find the transaction suspicious after it has already taken place. 

Do not tell the customer about your report. Keep the evidence that you collected for your report for a period of five years and store it separately from other customer documents.

Where should I send my report?

The body responsible for handling anti-money laundering reports in Finland is the National Bureau of Investigation’s Financial Intelligence Unit. It takes care of all suspected cases of money laundering and terrorist financing and produces information to combat the phenomena.

The report is made via an online reporting application to which you must register. A link to the reporting tool is provided at the bottom of this page.