Poczta Polska, who trains their employees to shoot with a gun, saves the data of people who make transfers over 4500 zloty. This obligation comes from a EU directive. However, the related regulations should have been in operation for four years, and the institution has first implemented them recently.
If you make a transfer over 4.5 thousand PLN at the Polish Post Office, then be prepared to provide full details. In addition to the name and surname, it will not do without the PESEL number and the number and series of the identity document. Such an obligation is imposed by the EU directive, which is to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.
The EU introduced provisions in this matter in 2015. Poland introduced the relevant act adjusting the national regulations to the EU law in 2018. The editorial staff of Money.pl asked Poczta Polska why it is only now implementing the relevant provisions.
Traning at Poczta Polska
Currently, a large number of Poczta Polska employees are trained in the knowledge of the obligations imposed on the company under the Act, which is also a legal requirement – said the spokesman of Poczta Polska, Daniel Witkowski, avoiding a specific answer.
The Act introduces the obligation to apply security measures in the event of an occasional transaction:
- with an equivalent of EUR 15,000 or more, regardless of whether the transaction is carried out as a single operation or several operations that appear to be related to each other,
- which is a transfer of funds for an amount exceeding the equivalent of EUR 1,000,
- with the use of a virtual currency with an equivalent of EUR 1,000 or more.
The provisions of the Act must be applied by: domestic banks , branches of foreign banks, branches of credit institutions, financial institutions, credit unions, domestic payment institutions, domestic electronic money institutions , branches of EU payment institutions, investment companies, custodian banks , foreign legal entities conducting on the territory of the Republic of Poland, brokerage activities, investment funds, insurance companies, insurance intermediaries, the National Depository for Securities, entrepreneurs running exchange offices and notaries.
EU is stepping up the fight against money laundering
In 2020, the Union introduced further regulations in the directive. Poland did not introduce them quickly enough, and the European Commission warned that it was launching a lawsuit in violation of EU regulations.
In 2021, the Community decided to further tighten the fight against money laundering. The EU is to establish AMLA (Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism), an agency for counteracting money laundering. AMLA will centrally coordinate the activities of national supervisors.
EU AMLA will exercise direct supervision for the ‘most risky financial institutions’ operating in a large number of Member States. At the end of June, the European Council gave its partial agreement to the establishment of the institution.
Source: Gazeta
