DNFBPs

Who is caught

Bermuda regulates designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs) principally through the Proceeds of Crime (Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2008 (the POCA SEA Act) and the Proceeds of Crime (Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing) Regulations 2008. These instruments assign supervision by sector and apply AML/ATF obligations to a defined range of non-financial persons operating in or from Bermuda.

• Real estate: Real estate brokers and agents, supervised by the Superintendent of Real Estate.
• Dealers in high value goods: Dealers accepting cash payments of BMD 7,500 or more, registered with and supervised by the Registrar, and listed with casino operators in Schedule 2 as regulated non-financial businesses subject to the fit and proper test.
• Casino operators: Supervised by the Bermuda Gaming Commission and subject to specific patron verification and account rules.
• Independent professionals: Barristers and accountants acting in that capacity, supervised by the Barristers and Accountants AML/ATF Board, which was designated as their supervisory authority under the 2012 Designation Order.
• Corporate service providers: Persons carrying on CSP business (company and partnership formation, nominee services, registered office and administrative or secretarial services, and resident representative functions), who are both licensed under the Corporate Service Provider Business Act 2012 and designated as AML/ATF regulated financial institutions.
• Digital asset and other RFIs: The Regulations also reach digital asset businesses and members of financial groups; supervision of AML/ATF regulated financial institutions generally sits with the BMA.

For CSPs, any business or individual carrying out one or more licensable CSP activity for profit in or from Bermuda must hold a valid licence unless exempted. The BMA has confirmed no change to the current scope of licensable CSP activities under its 2025 rules work, and lawyers or law firms acting as formation agents in a manner amounting to CSP business require a licence.

Sources: Proceeds of Crime (Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Supervision and Enforcement) Designation Order 2012 (BR 64/2012) · Proceeds of Crime (Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing) Regulations 2008 · Proceeds of Crime (Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2008 · CSP Business Act 2012 - Guidance Notes: Information for Prospective Applicants (March 2020) · Stakeholder Letter - Consultation Paper - Corporate Service Provider (CSP) Business Rules 2025 (2025-10-16) · Response to Industry on the Corporate Service Provider Business Act 2012 (2012-03-02)

Key duties

Continuing obligations fall into two overlapping strands: sector licensing or registration, and the AML/ATF customer and control obligations that apply across the regulated sector.

Registration and licensing

• AML registration: Non-licensed AML/ATF regulated financial institutions and regulated non-financial businesses or professions must apply for and maintain registration with their supervisory authority, subject to fit and proper testing and cancellation procedures.
• CSP licensing: Persons carrying on CSP business must hold a licence under the Corporate Service Provider Business Act 2012; applicants submit Form CSP 1 with prescribed fees, a business plan under section 10(2), and Shareholder Controller and Senior Executive questionnaires. Carrying on CSP business without a licence is an offence.
• Prior permission: The 2017 amendment requires limited licensees to obtain the BMA's prior permission before forming a company or partnership, or altering a register of members by transfer or issue of shares or interests, unless the law expressly provides otherwise.

AML/ATF core obligations

• Customer due diligence: Relevant persons must identify and verify customers and beneficial owners, understand ownership and control structures, and apply simplified or enhanced measures based on risk, generally using a 25 percent beneficial ownership threshold (10 percent for corporate service providers).
• Enhanced due diligence: Enhanced measures apply to politically exposed persons and to business connected with higher-risk jurisdictions. The Minister issues recurring advisories identifying the current FATF call-for-action and increased-monitoring jurisdictions under Regulation 11(1)(aa) and (ab); firms must factor these into their systems and controls.
• Ongoing monitoring: Relevant persons must conduct ongoing monitoring of business relationships and transactions and screen against international sanctions.
• Officers and controls: Relevant persons must appoint a Compliance Officer and a Reporting Officer, maintain internal systems and reporting procedures, provide staff training, and maintain an independent audit function where applicable.
• Record-keeping: Records of CDD measures and transactions must be kept as required under Part 3 of the Regulations.
• Suspicious activity reporting: Persons must promptly disclose knowledge or suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing to the Financial Intelligence Agency and must not tip off.

CSP filings and notifications

• Annual Certificate of Compliance: Each licensed CSP must annually deliver a Certificate of Compliance to the BMA confirming adherence to the minimum licensing criteria and Codes of Practice; the 2014 consultation material states this is due within four months of financial year end. Failure to submit is a statutory offence.
• Exemption declaration: A CSP whose exemption is subject to conditions imposed by the Authority must file an annual declaration confirming continued qualification and compliance on or before 31 March each year.
• Beneficial ownership records: Under the draft Corporate Service Provider (Beneficial Owner) Regulations 2012, CSPs must take reasonable steps to ascertain and record the beneficial owners of clients; a beneficial owner must notify the CSP in writing within 28 days of any change.
• Material-development notification: Guidance and the Code of Practice expect CSPs to notify the BMA proactively of significant developments such as changes in key personnel, systems, controllers, criminal proceedings, cybersecurity incidents, and material business changes.

Sources: Proceeds of Crime (Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing) Regulations 2008 · Proceeds of Crime (Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2008 · Corporate Service Provider Business Exemption Order 2015 · AML-ATF Ministerial Advisory 3/2025: Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (2025-12-16) · Guidance Notes for AML/ATF Regulated Financial Institutions 2022 - Annex VI: Sector-Specific Guidance Notes (SSGN) for Corporate Service Provider (CSP) Business · AML/ATF Ministerial Advisory 2/2025: Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing controls in higher risk jurisdictions (2025-07-17) · AML-ATF Ministerial Advisory 3/2024: Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing controls in higher risk jurisdictions (2024-12-02) · AML-ATF Ministerial Advisory 2/2024: Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing controls in higher risk jurisdictions (2024-07-08) · AML-ATF Ministerial Advisory 1/2024: Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing controls in higher risk jurisdictions (2024-03-27) · AML/ATF Ministerial Advisory 2/2022: Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing controls in higher risk jurisdictions (2022-07-12) · AML-ATF Ministerial Advisory 1/2022: Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing controls in higher risk jurisdictions (2022-04-11) · AML-ATF Ministerial Advisory 3/2021: Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing controls in higher risk jurisdictions (2021-11-18) · AML/ATF Ministerial Advisory 1/2021: Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing controls in higher risk jurisdictions (2021-03-25) · AML/ATF Ministerial Advisory 2/2020: Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing controls in higher risk jurisdictions (2020-11-20) · AML/ATF Ministerial Advisory 2/2019: Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing controls in higher risk jurisdictions (2019-08-19) · AML/ATF Ministerial Advisory 1/2019: Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing controls in higher risk jurisdictions (2019-02-22) · CSP Business Act 2012 - Guidance Notes: Information for Prospective Applicants (March 2020) · Further Guidance - CSP Gatekeeper Role (2017-06-14) · Annex VI - Sector-Specific Guidance Notes for Corporate Service Provider Business · CSP - Code of Practice (September 2019) · Corporate Service Provider Business Amendment Act 2017 · Notice - Code of Practice Consultation Paper (2014-09-15) · Corporate Service Providers Guidance Notes (December 2012) · Notice - Corporate Service Provider (Beneficial Owner) Regulations 2012 (2012-12-21) · AML/ATF Sectoral Guidance Notes for CSPs (2021) - Annex VI

Exemptions and carve-outs

The principal carve-outs relate to the CSP licensing requirement. The Corporate Service Provider Business Exemption Order 2015, made under the 2012 Act, exempts specified categories from the requirement to hold a CSP licence, subject to any conditions the BMA imposes.

• Fund administration providers: Persons licensed under section 10(1) of the Fund Administration Provider Business Act 2019 providing registrar and transfer services connected to their fund administration business.
• Intra-group providers: Companies carrying on CSP business only for members of their own company group (parent, subsidiaries and affiliates).
• Sole director service companies: Companies whose CSP activity is limited to providing director services, owned by a single shareholder controller who is the sole employee providing those services.
• Insurance managers: Insurance managers providing CSP business only to licensed insurers, competent-authority-licensed insurers, or parent companies of insurers licensed under the Insurance Act 1978.

Any exempt person whose exemption is subject to conditions must file the annual declaration by 31 March confirming continued qualification. The designation of the Barristers and Accountants AML/ATF Board is administrative and does not itself create or remove substantive AML/ATF duties. The advisory notices and the AML/ATF guidance annexes indexed here do not set out further sectoral exemptions.

Sources: Proceeds of Crime (Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Supervision and Enforcement) Designation Order 2012 (BR 64/2012) · Corporate Service Provider Business Exemption Order 2015

Enforcement and penalties

Supervisory authorities have a range of investigative and disciplinary powers, and non-compliance carries both criminal and civil exposure.

• Supervisory powers: Under the POCA SEA Act 2008, competent authorities may require information and documents, conduct site visits, and enter premises under warrant, with offences for failing to comply. Enforcement tools include civil penalties, directives, licence restriction or revocation, public censure, prohibition orders, injunctions and winding-up petitions, with warning and decision notice procedures and rights of appeal to an appeal tribunal and ultimately the Supreme Court.
• Criminal offences: Breach of specified AML/ATF Regulations is a criminal offence. The CSP sector guidance annexes state fines up to $50,000 on summary conviction, or up to $750,000 and/or two years' imprisonment on indictment.
• Civil penalties: The guidance annexes describe BMA civil penalties for AML/ATF failures; the cited figures differ between annexes (one references up to $10,000,000 per failure under section 20 of the POCA SEA Act, another references up to $500,000 per contravention). The underlying cap should be confirmed against the Act itself.
• CSP certificate default: The 2014 consultation material states a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per week of default under section 46(2) of the Corporate Service Provider Business Act 2012 for failure to deliver the certificate of compliance.
• Beneficial owner offence: Under the draft Corporate Service Provider (Beneficial Owner) Regulations 2012, a beneficial owner who fails to notify a change within 28 days commits an offence carrying a fine up to $10,000, and failing to comply with a disclosure notice is also an offence.

Published enforcement outcomes illustrate how these powers are used against corporate service providers. The BMA imposed civil penalties of $981,000 on Conyers Corporate Services (Bermuda) Limited for AML/ATF and licensing-criteria failures, and $600,000 on Meritus Trust Company Limited for AML/ATF and governance breaches. It revoked the CSP licence of Phoenix Law Chambers under section 17 of the Act for breach of the minimum criteria, and issued a public warning against Mangrove Corporate Services Limited for conducting CSP business without a licence.

Sources: Proceeds of Crime (Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2008 · Guidance Notes for AML/ATF Regulated Financial Institutions 2022 - Annex VI: Sector-Specific Guidance Notes (SSGN) for Corporate Service Provider (CSP) Business · Annex VI - Sector-Specific Guidance Notes for Corporate Service Provider Business · Notice - Code of Practice Consultation Paper (2014-09-15) · Notice - Enforcement Action - Civil Penalties - Meritus Trust Company Limited (2024-12-30) · Notice - Corporate Service Provider (Beneficial Owner) Regulations 2012 (2012-12-21) · Civil Penalties - Meritus Trust Company Limited (2024-12-30) · Civil Penalties - Conyers Corporate Services Limited (2022-05-02) · Revocation of Licence - Phoenix Law Chambers (2020-12-22) · Warning - Mangrove Corporate Services Limited (2019-04-16) · AML/ATF Sectoral Guidance Notes for CSPs (2021) - Annex VI