2026-01-01 | JPRFM-2026-024-AThe Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation Board (JPRFM) issued Resolution JPRFM-2026-024-A to approve the reform of the Central Bank of Ecuador's governance resolutions regarding money laundering and financing of crimes risk administration. The resolution replaces the previous Section 6 with a new Section 7 that establishes comprehensive processes, definitions, and risk-based methodologies for detecting, preventing, and mitigating these risks. It mandates the implementation of a specific risk management program, including a risk matrix and internal controls, to ensure the Central Bank complies with national laws and international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force.
RESOLUTION No. JPRFM-2026-024-A THE BOARD OF FINANCIAL AND MONETARY POLICY AND REGULATION CONSIDERING: That, Article 226 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador prescribes that public servants and persons acting by virtue of state authority shall exercise only the competencies and powers attributed to them in the Constitution and the Law; That, Article 227 ibid states that Public Administration constitutes a service to the community governed by the principles of efficiency, quality, hierarchy, coordination, planning, among others; That, the first paragraph of Article 303 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador determines that the formulation of monetary, credit, exchange, and financial policies is the exclusive faculty of the Executive Branch and shall be implemented through the Central Bank of Ecuador; That, on October 13, 2025, the Organic Law Reforming the Organic Monetary and Financial Code was published in the Sixth Supplement of Official Register No. 142; That, Article 13 of the Organic Monetary and Financial Code creates the Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation, part of the Executive Branch, as an organ with functional, technical, and institutional autonomy, and in its decisions, responsible for the formulation of monetary, credit, financial, securities, insurance, and prepaid comprehensive health care services policy and regulation. The Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation shall be the highest governing body of the Central Bank of Ecuador; That, Article 17 of the aforementioned Code, in its pertinent part, determines that: "(...) For the fulfillment of these functions, the Board shall issue regulations in matters within its competence, without altering legal provisions. The Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation may issue regulations by segments, economic activities, and other criteria. It may even reform or repeal regulations from the former Board of Monetary Policy and Regulation, the Board of Financial Policy and Regulation, or the Board of Monetary and Financial Policy and Regulation. All norms and policies issued by the Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation in the exercise of its functions, duties, and powers must be backed by duly substantiated technical and legal reports (...)";
RESOLUTION No. JPRFM-2026-024-A Page | 2 That, Article 19 of the same Code, regarding the specific functions of the Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation in the monetary sphere, among others, establishes: "(...) 2. Establish the policies of the Central Bank of Ecuador and supervise their implementation (...)"; That, Article 24 ibid provides that the acts of the Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation enjoy the presumption of legality and shall be expressed through resolutions that will have mandatory force, which shall govern from their publication in the Official Register, or from the date of their issuance when so determined by the Board, in accordance with the subject matter; That, Article 25.2 ut supra determines that the Technical Secretariat of the Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation is exercised by the Central Bank of Ecuador, and Article 25.3 establishes as its functions the preparation of technical and legal reports supporting regulation proposals, providing technical and administrative support to the Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation, and those assigned to it by said Board; That, Article 57 of the aforementioned Code indicates: "External Control. The Central Bank of Ecuador is subject to the control of the Comptroller General of the State for:
RESOLUTION No. JPRFM-2026-024-A Page | 3 That, the Organic Law on Prevention, Detection, and Combating the Crime of Money Laundering and the Financing of Other Crimes establishes the legal framework applicable for the prevention, detection, and combating of money laundering risks and the financing of other crimes, as well as the obligation to implement prevention, control, and reporting systems oriented to mitigate such risks; That, through Executive Decree No. 298, of January 30, 2026, the Constitutional President of the Republic issued the General Regulation to the Organic Law on Prevention, Detection, and Combating the Crime of Money Laundering and the Financing of Other Crimes, which provides that the Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation shall establish the special regime applicable to the Central Bank of Ecuador to comply with the aforementioned Law; That, the First Transitional Provision of the Organic Law Reforming the Organic Monetary and Financial Code determines that the members of the Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation, sworn in on September 16, 2025, by the National Assembly, will continue to exercise their functions for the periods for which they were designated and will maintain their labor continuity and acquired rights; That, through Office No. T.233-SGJ-25-098 of September 5, 2025, signed by the Constitutional President of the Republic, addressed to the President of the National Assembly, the list of candidates for the designation of the Members of the Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation was sent; as well as, the temporality of their stay within the initial period; That, the Plenary of the National Assembly, on September 16, 2025, designated and swore in the members of the Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation, in the persons of: Gustavo Estuardo Camacho Dávila; Silvia Daniela Moya Arteta; Roberto Javier Basantes Romero; and, María Isabel Camacho Cárdenas; That, in view of the nature of the operations and activities developed by the Central Bank of Ecuador, the Institution is exposed to money laundering and financing of crimes risks, so it is necessary to strengthen the institutional system for the prevention of such risks, particularly through the adequate functioning of the prevention function and the designation of a manager for money laundering prevention management at the BCE, who has the necessary technical and professional suitability for the exercise of their functions; That, the Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation, in Ordinary Session No. 013-2026, under hybrid modalities, on May 27, 2026, reviewed the resolution proposal sent via Memorandum No. BCE-BCE-2026-0236-M, of May 22, 2026, by the General Manager of the Central Bank of Ecuador to the President of the Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation; as well as, the Technical Report No. BCE-GR-2026-044 / BCE-SC-2026-044, of May 22, 2026; and, the Legal Report No. BCE-GJ-058-2026, of May 22, 2026; and, In exercise of its functions and in attention to Article 24 of the Organic Monetary and Financial Code, the Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation: RESOLVES: Sole Article. – Substitute Section 6 "Administration of Money Laundering and Financing of Crimes Risk", Chapter I "Government of the Central Bank of Ecuador", Title II "Government Policies of the Central Bank of Ecuador" of the "Codification of Governance Resolutions of the Central Bank of Ecuador issued by the Board of Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation", with the following:
"SECTION 7 ADMINISTRATION OF MONEY LAUNDERING AND FINANCING OF OTHER CRIMES RISK SUBSECTION 1: OBJECT, SCOPE OF APPLICATION, AND DEFINITIONS Article 127.- Object. - This resolution aims to establish the processes, procedures, mechanisms, and methodologies for the detection, prevention, mitigation, and administration of the money laundering and financing of other crimes risk of the Central Bank of Ecuador as a complementary anti-money laundering unit. Article 128.- Scope of Application. - The provisions of this resolution shall be subject to the workers and employees who provide their services at the Central Bank of Ecuador under any modality; as well as, their external counterparties generating money laundering and financing of other crimes risks. Article 129.- Definitions: For the purposes of application of this resolution, the following shall be understood:
RESOLUTION No. JPRFM-2026-024-A Page | 5 4. Client. - Legal person with whom the Central Bank of Ecuador maintains a contractual relationship. 5. Correspondent. - Foreign financial entity with which the Central Bank of Ecuador maintains commercial or banking relationships; 6. Supplier. - It is the natural or legal person, national or foreign, that provides goods or services to the Central Bank of Ecuador 7. User. - Natural or legal person who, without being a client of the Central Bank of Ecuador, receives a service from it. 8. Due Diligence. - It is the set of processes and procedures that the Central Bank of Ecuador will apply to know its counterparty; it may include the collection, verification, authentication, and updating of information; 9. Simplified Measures. - It is the set of procedures that will be applied to operations considered low and medium risk; 10. Enhanced Due Diligence. - It is the set of differentiated, more demanding, and exhaustive procedures that will be applied to operations considered high risk; 11. Risk Factor. - Parameter that allows evaluating the particular circumstances and characteristics of the counterparty, whether products, services, channels, and geographic situation, with the aim of determining the probability of occurrence and impact of an unusual transaction; 12. Linkage Forms. - Standardized formats that the Central Bank of Ecuador will design, with the aim of collecting information from counterparties, at the beginning of the contractual relationship or when it is deemed necessary to update data; 13. Money Laundering (also known as capital laundering, money whitening, capital legitimation, or capital whitening). - Mechanism through which the nature, true origin, location, ownership, or control of assets derived from illegal activities is hidden or disguised to introduce them as legitimate into the economic system of a country. Illicit source is understood as any income obtained from illegal acts such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, organized crime, corruption, extortion, tax evasion, fraud, bribes, arms trafficking, etc.; 14. Watch List. - These are national and international databases that collect information, reports, and backgrounds from different organizations, of natural and legal persons, who may present suspicious activities, investigations, processes, or convictions for money laundering and terrorism financing crimes, primarily used by compliance officers; 15. Risk Matrix. - Control and management tool normally used to identify and quantify activities that maintain money laundering or financing of crimes risk, based on the level of probability and impact of these. It facilitates the administration of risks associated with products, services, and organizational processes in matters of money laundering and financing of crimes prevention; 16. Tax Haven. - Those countries or states characterized by having lax tax and state control legislations; and, that have been classified as such by the Internal Revenue Service; 17. Non-Cooperative Countries. - Those jurisdictions that have not developed the necessary preventive measures to protect the country against money laundering and terrorism financing; 18. Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs). - Natural persons, national or foreign, who perform or hold prominent public functions in Ecuador or abroad; or prominent functions in an international organization, in accordance with the guidelines established by the Financial and Economic Analysis Unit (UAFE). The control may be extended to family members of the politically exposed person, up to the second degree of consanguinity and affinity or direct collaborators; that is, the natural person with whom a politically exposed person is societarily linked or maintains other types of close business, commercial, or labor relationships. Family members with first and second degree affinity bond are the spouse or the person with whom they maintain a de facto union, parents-in-law, and siblings-in-law. Family members up to the second degree of consanguinity are parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, and siblings. A direct collaborator shall be considered any natural person who holds title or control of an instrument or legal person, jointly or on behalf of one of the persons with PEP status; or, who maintains close business and commercial relationships with them. Furthermore, those who share title of legal persons, without considering the share package and who are related as partners/shareholders, company directors, among others, or who share contracts or other legal figures, shall also be considered such. Also, the person who, among their responsibilities, exercises advice for the PEP; or, to whom faculties have been assigned to approve or dispose of the initiation of contracting, awarding, execution, or liquidation procedures for goods or services contracts, among other attributions, shall be considered a direct collaborator;
RESOLUTION No. JPRFM-2026-024-A Page | 7 19. Behavior Profile. - Own and habitual characteristics of the analyzed subject, associated with their general information and with the way in which they use the services offered by the Central Bank of Ecuador; 20. Transactional Profile. - Nature, frequency, and value of the transactions executed by a natural or legal person of the services of the Central Bank of Ecuador or of the services provided due to the operating authorization granted by it or in which the Central Bank of Ecuador participates in some way; 21. Products. - Tangible results of a process of the Central Bank of Ecuador; 22. Inherent Risk. - It is the level of risk inherent to the activity, without taking into account the effect of controls; 23. Residual Risk. - It is the level of risk resulting once controls have been applied; 24. Service. - It is the result of the execution of processes and occurs while there is interaction between the Central Bank of Ecuador and the different counterparties; and, 25. Financial and Economic Analysis Unit, UAFE. - The Financial and Economic Analysis Unit (UAFE) is the technical entity responsible for the collection of information, reporting, execution of national prevention and eradication policies and strategies for money laundering and financing of crimes. It is an entity with operational, administrative, financial autonomy, and coercive jurisdiction. SUBSECTION 2: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROGRAM FOR THE DETECTION, PREVENTION, MITIGATION, AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE RISKS OF THE CRIME OF MONEY LAUNDERING, TERRORISM FINANCING, AND FINANCING OF PROLIFERATION OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION (AML/CFT/CPF) Article 130.- Program for the Administration of Money Laundering and Financing of Other Crimes Risk. - The Central Bank of Ecuador will implement and develop a system for the Administration of Money Laundering and Financing of Crimes Risk, composed of procedures, controls, and methodologies. Article 131.- Manual for the administration of money laundering and financing of other crimes risk. - The Central Bank of Ecuador will implement a manual that will contain procedures, controls, and responsibilities that personnel must apply to administer the money laundering and financing of other crimes risk.
RESOLUTION No. JPRFM-2026-024-A Page | 8 Article 132.- Methodology with a risk-based approach. - The Central Bank of Ecuador will implement methodologies that allow identifying the counterparty, products, services, channels, and geographic zone; establishing transactional and behavior profiles; and applying processes for the timely detection of unusual, unjustified, or suspicious operations. SUBSECTION 3: RISK-BASED ADMINISTRATION APPROACH Article 133.- Risk Administration. - The administration of money laundering and financing of other crimes risk will allow the Central Bank of Ecuador to identify risks, evaluate the impact and probability of their occurrence; and, establish controls that determine the mitigation, transfer, or acceptance of the risk level. Article 134.- Risk Factors. - The Central Bank of Ecuador will establish a methodology that allows it to identify risk factors and events, segment them, classify them, and identify the ways in which money laundering and financing of crimes risk can arise. The Central Bank of Ecuador may consider at least the following risk factors:
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