The Financial Investigations Unit (UIF) released a set of measures to counteract the effects of the current pandemic in its April 29 EXT/UIF/DGE/2/2020 circular. Some of the measures include making available an email address for all public and private entities looking to present claims or request information from the UIF as well as determining that all investigation or information requests by the Public Ministry, Transparency Ministry and Attorney General will have to be encrypted and signed digitally according to Bolivian law standards[1]. All Suspected Operation Reports will continue to be presented via the preexisting digital platform. 

The UIF also recommended the following measures to be applied by Obligated Subjects reduce exposure to AML and TF crimes: 

  1. E-transfers. - maintain monitoring of national and international e-transfers during the quarantine taking into account operations’ historic record.
  2. Virtual Assets. - Obligated Subjects are not allowed to trade virtual assets or any other type of currency that has not been authorized by the Central Bank of Bolivia.
  3. Account opening prevention during the pandemic. - Be aware of unusual account opening behavior and report any suspicious activity to the UIF.
  4. Obligated Subject obligations. - There is tolerance towards Obligated Subjects’ obligation to report suspicious activities during the pandemic as long as there is documented proof and proper justification about the conditions that didn’t allow the OS to comply with such obligations.

[1] SD 4218 of 14/04/2020.