Jewelers Mutual Group and the Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC) have teamed up to create JewelPAC, an online service meant to will help jewelers comply with federally mandated anti–money laundering (AML) requirements.

The program is designed to meet the provisions of the U.S. Patriot Act, which, since 2006, has required that jewelers who buy and sell $50,000 or more a year in precious metals implement and regularly test an AML program. Internal Revenue Service agents have periodically audited jewelry businesses to make sure they comply with Patriot Act requirements.

The new program is designed to be “sort of the TurboTax of Patriot Act compliance,” says Tina Olm, Jewelers Mutual Group’s director of enterprise business development. “It guides jewelers through what they need to do.”

The program includes templates of the required documents  and guides, and spells out what jewelers need to do as far as doing a risk assessment, training employees, and periodically testing their compliance program. It also gives instructions on how companies can manually check names of potential clients in the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) database.

While the JVC continues to sell the hard copy of its Patriot Act compliance workbook on its site, the organization’s president and chief executive officer Tiffany Stevens says this new online product is “perfect for the work-at-home era. It’s bringing compliance to your couch.”

She hopes that the program will boost compliance “quite a bit.”

“We know the U.S. Treasury is watching and demanding more of us,” she added. “We will probably see increased enforcement around AML postcrisis, simply because of the chaos and money laundering that’s happening around the world. So, now is a good time to make sure you are protected. So, if the IRS comes knocking, you will have all the documents ready to go to show them you are compliant.”

More information on the JewelPAC program can be seen here.

(Image courtesy of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee)

Rob Bates

JCK News Director