epay New Zealand Limited

Date Made

Date signed: 2015-06-21

Sectors

Payment providers

Enacting statement

In accordance with section 157(6)(b) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (“the Act”), the Associate Minister of Justice hereby gives notice that he has granted the following exemptions from the Act:

Ministerial Exemption: epay New Zealand Limited

Commencement date

This exemption comes into force on 2015-06-21

End date

This exemption will expire on 2018-06-30

Exemption

In my capacity as the Associate Minister of Justice and pursuant to section 157 of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (“the Act”), I exempt epay New Zealand Limited (“epay”) from all provisions of the Act in relation to services it provides to enable customers to pay their electricity bills.

Conditions

The exemption is granted subject to the following conditions:

1. 1. Every wire transfer must relate only to the payment of electricity bills directly to the bank account or facility of an “industry participant” as defined under section 7(1) of the Electricity Industry Act 2010.
   2. Every wire transfer undertaken as part of the exempted service must be domestic in nature, as defined under section 27(7) of the Act.
   3. Wire transfers undertaken as part of the exempted service must not exceed $1000.00.
   4. Bill payment reports are to be held and maintained by epay for a period of five years in accordance with sections 49(1) and 49(3) of the Act.

Statement of reasons

The exemption has been granted for the following reasons:

1. 1. The narrow scope of services offered by epay to customers;
   2. the lack of contact between epay and customers;
   3. the low value of payments made; and
   4. the process-driven systems employed to transfer payment from the payer to the payee.

The granting of this exemption is not inconsistent with the purpose or intent of the Act or the Financial Transactions Reporting Act 1996 or New Zealand’s international obligations as a member of the Financial Action Taskforce and the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering.

Contact

Any person wishing to provide comment on these notices should contact the AML/CFT Team at the Ministry of Justice by emailing amlcft.exemptions@justice.govt.nz.