Goods Traders

For goods traders, we offer a 360° AML-compliance according to the Money Laundering Act using standardised procedures. Our risk analyses are automatically adapted to your business operations. Requirements and risks can differ depending on the location, value and type of goods. We take this into account in our risk analyses and recommendations for action.

Leveraging risk management, Kerberos ensures the implementation of both internal and external due diligence requirements in online and stationary goods traders. Our compliance packages are flexible and suitable for self-employed persons up to franchisors and franchisees. We take over the custom-fit and regular training as well as the verification of employees and simultaneously provide you with digital solutions for identifying your contractual and business partners.

The reporting obligations set out in the Money Laundering Act can also be outsourced to Kerberos. We provide you with everything in this respect: from anonymous whistleblower platforms to money laundering reporting officers.

Money laundering is a transnational issue and amplified by the open borders in the European Union. This means that money launderers have quickly realised the added value, which the Union offers them, and which structures are necessary for this purpose. Today, these structures are exploited to launder illegally obtained money by buying goods such as jewellery, cars, art, precious metals or even rare stamps and coins.

Germany is particularly well suited for this. There is hardly any other European country where so many transactions are carried out in cash, some of them involving large amounts. This makes it possible to channel illegally generated cash turnover into the legal economy unnoticed by investing in high-quality goods, then exporting and reselling them.

For this reason, goods traders are particularly dependent on good risk analyses, fast KYC checks and a comprehensive documentation of all measures taken.

The existing measures include the expansion of the obligated parties in the Money Laundering Act and stricter requirements for the prevention of money laundering. In addition, the supervisory authorities of the federal states are cooperating more closely in order to interpret and apply the provisions of the Money Laundering Act in the same way countrywide as well as to monitor the implementation of the obligations uniformly.

Especially in the non-financial sector, it can be observed that so-called task forces are increasingly being commissioned. It was discovered that non-compliance with money laundering regulations is widespread. This observation leads to the likelihood that even more of these task forces will be deployed in the future.

Another widely discussed measure that would particularly affect the freight brokers is the demand for a so-called cash cap. This is repeatedly demanded, as it has already been implemented in some European countries such as Italy. Here, for example, no amounts above a value of 2,999.99 euros may be paid in cash since July 2020. In Germany, only an identification obligation starting at a threshold value of 10,000 euros applies instead. This threshold value is also frequently criticised. For this reason, the Money Laundering Act also requires customer identification, if the threshold value has not yet been exceeded, but a connection between several transactions below the threshold value cannot be excluded.