Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs)
Definition
Non-bank sectors required under FATF standards to apply AML controls, including real estate agents, lawyers, accountants, trust and company service providers, and dealers in precious metals and stones.
- Framework
- FATF AML/CFT standards
- Sectors covered
- Real estate agents, lawyers, accountants, TCSPs, precious metals dealers
- Obligation
- Apply AML controls outside the banking sector
- Common abbreviation
- DNFBPs
Common questions
Why does FATF extend AML obligations beyond banks to these professions?+
Money launderers route funds through non-bank gatekeepers, such as lawyers handling client accounts or real estate agents closing high-value cash purchases, precisely because those sectors historically had lighter reporting duties than banks, so FATF requires the same customer due diligence and suspicious-transaction reporting from them.
What kind of activity triggers DNFBP obligations for a lawyer or accountant?+
FATF standards single out specific high-risk activities, such as managing client funds, buying and selling real estate, or forming and administering companies and trusts, rather than every service the profession offers, so routine legal or accounting advice unrelated to those activities generally falls outside the DNFBP regime.
Related terms
- 40 Recommendations
- FATF's core normative standards, covering customer due diligence, suspicious transaction reporting, beneficial ownership, targeted financial sanctions, and international cooperation. Last substantially revised...
- Egmont Group
- An international network of 166 financial intelligence units (FIUs) that share financial intelligence through a secure system. FIUs are the operational channel...
- FATF
- The Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental body founded in 1989 by the G7 that sets global standards for anti-money laundering and...
- Grey List
- The FATF Jurisdictions Under Increased Monitoring list, identifying countries with strategic deficiencies that have committed to a remediation action plan. Inclusion increases...
- Mutual Evaluation
- A peer review of a country's AML and CTF system by a team of experts from other FATF members, assessing both technical...