LISBON: Portuguese banks will next year be required to report their offshore operations worth more than €15,000, according to a notification from the Bank of Portugal and due to come into effect on 1 December.
“The institutions subject to the supervision of the Bank of Portugal (…) should register the operations corresponding to payments of services provided by all entities included in the prudential supervision perimeter that benefit any individual or organisation headquartered offshore (…) and communicate them to the Bank of Portugal,” said the notification published on Friday in the Official Gazette.
The transactions that must be communicated to the Bank of Portugal are those worth €15,000 or more, or which are part of a set of related transactions worth that amount or more. The Bank of Portugal will be responsible for issuing and updating a list of relevant offshore locations based on the information regularly provided by the banks and other institutions.
“The reporting entities, based on their specific operating situation, will send the Bank of Portugal the identification of territories, including parts of Portugal, which have been seen to attract a significant volume of business from non-residents, specifically due to less demanding systems for authorisations to conduct banking activities and supervision, special banking secrecy schemes, tax breaks, different legislation for residents and non-residents or easy ways to establish special purpose vehicles,” the notification said.
This information will have to be sent to the Bank of Portugal by 31 October every year, in relation to operations carried out between 1 October the previous year and 30 September of the reporting year. The information required by the Bank of Portugal includes the type of service and payment, the transaction date, value in euros and the currency of the operation, as well as the identification (name, date of birth, nationality, address, place of birth) of the originator.
