La loi anti-blanchiment du 18 septembre 2017 : les nouvelles obligations des réviseurs d'entreprises et des experts-comptables externes en Belgique

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of laws concerning the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing.

Exacerbated by globalisation, this fight is an international issue as criminals take advantage of the differences in legislation between countries to pursue their illegal activities.

The purpose of this thesis is to explain the main new obligations introduced by the anti-money laundering law of the 18th of September 2017, to assess its impacts on externally certified accountants and auditors, its effectiveness, as well as its suitability for small accounting and auditing firms.

After defining the supranational, European and national framework of the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing, we will analyse the main new due diligences of the law of the 18th of September 2017, with regard to the professions concerned and the difficulties these new requirements created for them.

Then, we will report on an empirical research that was carried out thanks to interviews with professionals involved in the field of our study.

Although Belgium has been able to improve its anti-money laundering legislation, in practice, the application of the law of the 18th of September 2017 is complex.

The results obtained from these interviews have shown that the professionals targeted in this study have seen their workload and compliance costs increased. Moreover, these various impacts are much more significant for small accounting and auditing firms. Consequently, it seems obvious that this law is not adapted to small structures and their future will be jeopardized if there is no adjustment to the legislation studied in this thesis.