The Law on Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism ("Anti-Money Laundering Law") came into operation on 24 February 2015. The Anti-Money Laundering Law applies to all local and foreign individuals and legal entities / organisations undertaking business within and outside the Lao PDR. They are mandated to put in place measures to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. The law imposes certain specific obligations on "reporting units", which can either be "financial sector institutions" or "non-financial sector institutions". These obligations include adopting an anti-money laundering and terrorism financing policy, conducting customer identification before transacting business, record-keeping, and reporting transactions which exceed certain thresholds as well as those which are suspected to be connected to money laundering or terrorism financing within a prescribed period.
Commercial banks, micro-finance institutions, loan and credit providers, pawnshops and securities companies belong to the category of "financial sector institutions". "Non-financial sector institutions" include firms that settle financial instruments, commercial real estate representatives, dealers in antiques or precious metals, law firms, auditors and casino operators.
