Lawyers need to undertake three tasks to prepare themselves for becoming "reporting entities" under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009, the New Zealand Law Society says.

The Law Society has released a Practice Briefing, Preparing for becoming a reporting entity under the AML/CFT Act.

This says legislation before Parliament provides that the Act will apply to lawyers "not later than 1 July 2018".

The Practice Briefing says the Law Society has asked for this to be extended to "not later than 1 January 2019", but even with this as a deadline, there is a strong case for lawyers beginning to prepare for implementation.

It says the three tasks which lawyers can begin working on now are:

• Appoint an AML/CFT compliance officer.

• Produce a written risk assessment.

• Establish a written AML/CFT programme.

The Practice Briefing provides information on what is needed to complete these actions.

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