The draft law on preventing and combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation does not change the current requirements and procedures for operation of lawyers and accountants who starting from 2010 are specially defined entities involved in the system of combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation.

According to comments of the Finance Ministry of Ukraine, the said draft law is in line with international standards in the area of fighting money laundering and financing of terrorism, in line with sections 22 and 23 of the FATF Recommendations.

According to the draft law, lawyers and accountants are obliged to inform on suspicious transactions when they are involved in the financial tractions on behalf of or under order of clients.

The recommendations are fully reflected in the relevant articles of the draft law.

According to part 1 of Article 18 of the draft law, information provided by lawyers and accountants is used by the State Service for Financial Monitoring only with the purpose of analyzing information on financial transactions that are subject to financial monitoring, other financial transactions or information that could be linked to s suspicion in money laundering or financing of terrorism and proliferation, and not for pressing on business or seizing business.

According to according to part 5 of Article 5 of the law, lawyers and accountants could decide not to report on their suspicions to the State Service for Financial Monitoring if the information was received during the circumstances when it is considered a professional secret, as well as in cases when they protect clients, present their interests in courts and during the pretrial settling of disputes.