Hon Nicole McKee
Associate Minister of Justice

Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee welcomes BusinessNZ’s report which addresses reducing the compliance burden on small businesses.

“The challenges outlined in the report released today echo many of the concerns I have heard from businesses, which have informed my Anti Money Laundering/Countering Financing Terrorism (AML/CFT) priorities,” she says.

“I have recently announced an AML/CFT work programme that will deliver substantial reform to the AML/CFT regime. Many of the challenges to businesses identified in the report will be addressed through this work.

“In particular, we are focused on improving problem areas for business such as customer due diligence (CDD) settings. CDD is the highest cost area for businesses and reducing even a small amount of that duplication while maintaining quality CDD information will provide a large amount of relief to businesses.

“According to the BusinessNZ report small businesses want clear, accessible guidance and support to allow them to navigate AML requirements. Moving to a single AML/CFT supervisor will remove the barriers to issuing guidance and ensure that clear, consistent guidance is produced in a timely manner to support businesses.

“ACT campaigned on making AML compliance user-friendly for small businesses and my AML/CFT work programme will consider opportunities to reduce the overall burden on businesses. This includes expanding the range of exemptions available and simplifying the application process to make it more available for small to medium sized businesses.”

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