AMLC Reporting Guidelines under AMLA

Section 9-c of Republic Act No. 9160, as amended, requires covered institutions to report to the AMLC within the prescribed time frame.
The reporting deadline under Section 9-c is within five (5) working days from occurrence for both covered transactions and suspicious transactions.
The Circular Letter incorporates circumstances described in AMLC Resolution No. 292 dated October 24, 2003, and those circumstances continue to govern reporting.
The Circular Letter directs that the policies and guidelines be included in the ongoing development and implementation of AMLC’s Transaction Monitoring and Analysis System (TMAS).
The Circular Letter expressly links the reckoning of the reporting period to AMLC’s system-based penalty computation for delayed reporting.

Covered institutions (CIs) must report to the AMLC all covered transactions and suspicious transactions.
Reports must be made within five (5) working days from occurrence.
Reporting is subject to the counting rules and exclusions for non-working days established by the Circular Letter.
Penalties for delayed reporting are computed through TMAS, using the reckoning rules in the Circular Letter and any approved deviation outcomes.
The counting rules apply to the “prescribed reporting period” used to measure compliance with the five (5) working day requirement.

The following days are excluded from counting the prescribed reporting period:
- weekend (Saturday and Sunday)
- official regular national holiday
- officially declared national holiday (special non-working day nationwide)
The following national holiday rule applies:
- officially declared holiday in the locality where AMLC Secretariat Office is located is excluded from counting.
The excluded-day rule applies in reckoning compliance with the five (5) working day reporting period.
The exclusions are part of the rules AMLC uses for determining whether reporting is timely.

A “non-reporting day” may be declared by the AMLC Secretariat when the File Transfer and Reporting Facility (FTRF) used by covered institutions in transmitting electronic reports to AMLC is unavailable.
The unavailability must last for at least five (5) consecutive hours during the day.
An AMLC-declared non-reporting day is excluded from the counting of the prescribed reporting period.
The Executive Director of the AMLC Secretariat (or the Officer-in-Charge) is authorized to declare such days.
The Executive Director’s declaration must be based on notification and justification by the Deputy Director of IMAS AMLC Secretariat.

Local holidays, except for officially declared local holidays in the locality where the AMLC Secretariat Office is located, are treated as working days for covered institutions.
Covered institutions located in localities declared on holiday still have those local holidays included in counting the prescribed reporting period.
A covered institution affected by local holidays may file a deviation request with the AMLC Secretariat.
Approval of deviation requests lies with the Executive Director of the AMLC Secretariat (or the Officer-in-Charge) upon recommendation of the Deputy Director of IMAS AMLC Secretariat.
Approved deviations serve as the basis for manually recomputing penalties that would otherwise be automatically computed by TMAS.

Officially-declared non-working days in localities or regions affected by natural calamities such as flood, typhoon, earthquake, etc. may be excluded from counting the prescribed reporting period.
The exclusion applies to covered institutions located in affected localities or regions.
The covered institution must submit a deviation request to the AMLC Secretariat to obtain the exclusion.
The Executive Director of the AMLC Secretariat (or the Officer-in-Charge) approves the deviation request upon recommendation of the Deputy Director of IMAS AMLC Secretariat.
Approved deviations are the basis for manually recomputing penalties automatically computed by TMAS.

The AMLC Resolution provides that the policies and guidelines on reckoning compliance be included in the ongoing development and implementation of TMAS.
The guidelines are specifically used for the computation of the penalty for delayed reporting by the CIs.
The system-driven penalty computation for delayed reporting is subject to manual recomputation when deviation requests are approved.
The reckoning rules therefore directly determine how the reporting period is measured for penalty purposes.

The AMLC, through Resolution No. 2, Series of 2005, approved the policies and guidelines on reckoning covered institutions’ compliance with the prescribed reporting period.
The Circular Letter was adopted on January 31, 2005 by BSP Deputy Governor Alberto V. Reyes for information and guidance.
The AMLC Chairmanship and membership reflected in the AMLC resolution include the Governor, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commissioner, Insurance Commission.