The Congress of the Republic of Guatemala approved Decree Number 15-2026 (hereinafter, the “Decree”), through which the Comprehensive Law for the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering or Other Assets and Terrorist Financing is enacted, repealing Decrees 67-2001 and 58-2005.
The Decree responds to the need to update and unify the Guatemalan regulatory framework on the prevention and suppression of money laundering and terrorist financing, aligning it with the Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and preventing the inclusion of Guatemala on the grey list of non-cooperative jurisdictions. For the first time, both matters are integrated into a single legal instrument.
Main aspects of the Decree:
1- Regulatory unification
Decrees 67-2001 and 58-2005, which separately regulated money laundering and terrorist financing, are fully repealed and replaced. The new regime also incorporates the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (FPWMD), consolidating the three matters into a single, articulated and coherent legal body.
2- Expansion of the universe of Obligated Persons
The Decree extends the preventive regime to new categories of obligated subjects. In addition to entities supervised by the Superintendency of Banks, the following are included, among others: real estate promoters and intermediaries, notaries when they authorize notarial deeds related to acts of disposition or incorporation of legal entities, virtual asset service providers, and university-trained professionals providing legal, accounting, or auditing services on an independent basis. The latter are subject to a special regime of obligations with limited scope.
3- Risk-based approach
A risk-based compliance model (RBA) is adopted, under which each Obligated Person must identify, assess, and mitigate their level of exposure to ML/TF/FPWMD Risk, considering their client base, products, distribution channels, and geographic location. This analysis determines the intensity of the applicable due diligence measures and must be documented and approved by the senior governing body of each entity.
4- New compliance obligations
The Decree establishes, among others, the following obligations for Obligated Persons: registration with the Special Verification Intendancy (IVE); implementation of a ML/TF/FPWMD Prevention Manual; designation of a Compliance Officer; customer due diligence with identification of the ultimate beneficial owner, setting a control threshold of a 20% or greater ownership interest in the capital; transaction monitoring; filing of suspicious transaction reports (STRs) on an exclusive and confidential basis; and retention of information for a minimum of five years, with an extension of ten additional years in digital format for certain obligated parties.
5- Sanctions regime
Administrative violations are punishable by written reprimand or a fine ranging from US$500.00 to US$300,000.00. Where the Obligated Person has taken actions to obstruct the IVE’s supervisory functions, the applicable fine shall be double the ordinary fine or 20% of the amount of the transactions linked to the violation, whichever is greater. In the criminal sphere, the offense of money laundering carries non-commutable prison sentences of six to twenty years, and terrorist financing carries sentences of ten to thirty years.
6- Amendments to other regulatory bodies
The Decree introduces amendments to the Criminal Code, the Notarial Code, the Commercial Code, and the Law Against Organized Crime, among others. With respect to corporate matters, commercial companies incorporated prior to the entry into force of the law will have one year to update their share registry and six months to register the members of their governing body with the Commercial Registry.
The Decree will enter into force three months after its publication in the Official Gazette. Within that same period, the Superintendency of Banks must draft the corresponding Regulations.
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