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AMLA Section 20 — Customer identification and due diligence
Anti-Money Laundering Act (พระราชบัญญัติป้องกันและปราบปรามการฟอกเงิน) — Section 20.
Plain-English Summary
Financial institutions and Section 16 professions must have customers identify themselves before each transaction as set by ministerial regulation, unless they already did (Section 20). Financial institutions and the Section 16(1) and (9) professions must adopt customer-acceptance and money-laundering risk policies and carry out due diligence from the first transaction until the account closes or the relationship ends (Section 20/1); its scope for other professions is set by ministerial regulation. If due diligence cannot be completed, the reporting person must report to AMLO immediately (Section 21/2, first paragraph), and AMLO may order the transaction suspended for up to ten working days where it has evidence of an offence (second paragraph).
Official Text
Official Thai text at the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State. Translation summary only.
Consult official sourceParent Statute
Anti-Money Laundering Act
พระราชบัญญัติป้องกันและปราบปรามการฟอกเงิน · B.E. 2542 (1999)
The Anti-Money Laundering Act B.E. 2542 (1999) makes money laundering (Section 5) an offence by reference to a list of predicate offences (ความผิดมูลฐาน) in Section 3, and is administered through the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO), a government agency established by Section 40. Financial institutions must report cash, high-value and suspicious transactions (Section 13); listed professions and businesses must report cash and suspicious transactions (Section 16); and customer identification and due diligence apply to both groups (Sections 20 and 20/1). Tipping-off is prohibited (Section 21/1, penalty in Section 66). Property connected with an offence can be provisionally seized or frozen (Section 48) and, on the public prosecutor's petition to the Civil Court, forfeited to the State (Sections 49 and 59). The monetary reporting thresholds are set by ministerial regulation, not in the Act. The Act can reach other finance-related businesses through the ministerial-regulation limb of the definition of financial institution in Section 3, limb (6).
The summary above is a plain-English educational paraphrase of Section 20 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act. It is not an authoritative translation. For the binding Thai text, consult the Royal Gazette or the Office of the Council of State. Educational use only — not a substitute for advice from a Thai-qualified lawyer.
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