Supervision of Money Service Operators (MSOs)

The Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing Ordinance, Chapter 615 of the Hong Kong legislation, was revised again in December 2022 and will come into effect on April 1, 2023. According to the Anti Money Laundering Regulations, anyone who wishes to operate remittance and/or currency exchange services (i.e. money services as defined in the Anti Money Laundering Regulations) must report to the Commissioner of Customs (the Commissioner) Apply for a license。Operating monetary services without a license issued by the customs commissioner is a criminal offense, and upon conviction, a fine of 1000000 yuan and imprisonment for 2 years may be imposed. According to the Anti Money Laundering Regulations, the Commissioner is the relevant authority responsible for regulating money service operators (i.e. remittance agents and currency exchange merchants), supervising licensed money service operators' responsibilities in customer due diligence and record keeping, and compliance with other licensing requirements, as well as cracking down on unlicensed money service operations.

According to the Anti Money Laundering Regulations, the Commissioner has authorized personnel of this department to handle applications for licenses for money service operators and conduct compliance inspections and investigations on money service operators.