PEP Definition

DIRECTIVE (EU) 2015/849 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 20 May 2015

on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, amending Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and repealing Directive 2005/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Directive 2006/70/EC

DEFINITION OF A POLITICALLY EXPOSED PERSON (PEP)

ARTICLE 3

(9) ‘politically exposed person’ means a natural person who is or who has been entrusted with prominent public functions and includes the following:

(a) heads of State, heads of government, ministers and deputy or assistant ministers;

(b) members of parliament or of similar legislative bodies;

(c) members of the governing bodies of political parties;

(d) members of supreme courts, of constitutional courts or of other high-level judicial bodies, the decisions of which are not subject to further appeal, except in exceptional circumstances;

(e) members of courts of auditors or of the boards of central banks;

(f) ambassadors, chargés d’affaires and high-ranking officers in the armed forces;

(g) members of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of State-owned enterprises;

(h) directors, deputy directors and members of the board or equivalent function of an international organisation.

No public function referred to in points (a) to (h) shall be understood as covering middle-ranking or more junior officials;

(10) ‘family members’ includes the following:

(a) the spouse, or a person considered to be equivalent to a spouse, of a politically exposed person;

(b) the children and their spouses, or persons considered to be equivalent to a spouse, of a politically exposed person;

(c) the parents of a politically exposed person;

11) ‘persons known to be close associates’ means:

(a) natural persons who are known to have joint beneficial ownership of legal entities or legal arrangements, or any other close business relations, with a politically exposed person;

(b) natural persons who have sole beneficial ownership of a legal entity or legal arrangement which is known to have been set up for the de facto benefit of a politically exposed person.