Tip 4.1 – Language of Documents

CySEC’s Directive for the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing specifies the requirements for obliged entities (the ‘Directive’). One of those requirements is the language of documents received and used to identify the beneficial owners of the customers.

Paragraph 33(3) Language of Documents

Paragraph 33 of the Directive was recently amended and, amongst others, provides that documents provided and kept for the prevention and suppression of money laundering must be in Greek or English and if they are not then they should be accompanied by a true translation.

True Translation in accordance with Paragraph 33(3) of the Directive

Although the laws of the Republic of Cyprus have recently introduced the notion of Sworn Translators the directive is silent in respects to any special requirements for true translations. It can be argued, to a certain extent, that even a simple statement translating the key information of the document is is sufficient to comply with this paragraph.

Official Language of the Republic of Cyprus

For the avoidance of any doubt, the official languages of the Republic of Cyprus are the Greek language and the Turkish Language. Nevertheless, CySEC is one of the few government authorities which accepts the English language in day to day operations. Although not justified in any official circular or document of CySEC this requirement is introduced in order to ensure that on an onsite audit by CySEC it would be able to review the documents held on a particular beneficial owner or customer.

CySEC extends the use of the English language to other official documents such as the corporate documents, prospectus, CySEC forms and correspondence.