NAMLC Consultation Paper - Proposed Amendments to the Trustee Act 1975 (2025-11-20)

Summary

This is a consultation paper issued by Bermuda's National Anti-Money Laundering Committee (NAMLC) proposing amendments to the Trustee Act 1975 to align Bermuda's legal framework with the revised FATF Recommendation 25 on beneficial ownership transparency for legal arrangements. It sets out proposed changes in five areas and invites industry feedback before any amendments are finalized.

• Designated authority: Proposes designating one or more authorities to oversee compliance with the Trustee Act, potentially requiring relevant persons (trustees and others) to register with that authority.
• Information and retention period: Proposes expanding categories of information to be kept (covering trustees, investment and tax advisors, and managers) and standardising the retention period to five years after a trustee's involvement with the trust ceases.
• Beneficial ownership definition: Proposes inserting a definition of beneficial owner and control into the Trustee Act, covering settlors, trustees, protectors, beneficiaries or classes of beneficiaries, objects of power, and any person exercising ultimate effective control.
• Sanctions: Proposes strengthening penalties under section 54A and related provisions so that all contraventions by trustees (including failures to keep or provide access to records) are subject to effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions, generally per contravention.
• Non-professional trustee obligations: Proposes a new section 13AA(1) requiring non-professional trustees to keep accurate, adequate and current records on trust assets, liabilities, additions and distributions, purchases and sales, income and expenses, details of regulated agents/service providers, and to disclose trustee status and cooperate with competent authorities.

NAMLC is seeking written industry feedback on these proposals; no amendments have yet been enacted. Trustees, exempted trustees and companies, non-professional trustees, and trust administrators or service providers should review the proposed drafting in Annex I and consider its practical impact before the comment deadline.

Key obligations

• Submit written comments on the proposed Trustee Act amendments via email to info-NAMLC@gov.bm no later than December 4, 2025

Applies to

trustees, non-professional trustees, exempted trustees, exempted companies, trust administrators, investment and tax advisors and managers, regulated agents and service providers to trusts

Deadlines

• December 4, 2025: Deadline for industry to submit written comments and feedback on the consultation paper to info-NAMLC@gov.bm