Article 77Record retention

1. Obliged entities shall retain the following documents and information:

(a)

a copy of the documents and information obtained in the performance of customer due diligence pursuant to Chapter III, including information obtained through electronic identification means;

(b)

a record of the assessment undertaken pursuant to Article 69(2), including the information and circumstances considered and the results of such assessment, whether or not such assessment results in a suspicious transaction report being made to the FIU, and a copy of the suspicion transaction report, if any;

(c)

the supporting evidence and records of transactions, consisting of the original documents or copies admissible in judicial proceedings under the applicable national law, which are necessary to identify transactions;

(d)

when they participate in partnerships for information sharing pursuant to Chapter VI, copies of the documents and information obtained in the framework of those partnerships, and records of all instances of information sharing.

Obliged entities shall ensure that documents, information and records kept pursuant to this Article are not redacted.

2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, obliged entities may decide to replace the retention of copies of the information by a retention of the references to such information, provided that the nature and method of retention of such information ensure that the obliged entities can provide immediately to competent authorities the information and that the information cannot be modified or altered.

Obliged entities making use of the derogation referred to in the first subparagraph shall define in their internal procedures drawn up pursuant to Article 9, the categories of information for which they will retain a reference instead of a copy or original, as well as the procedures for retrieving the information so that it can be provided to competent authorities upon request.

3. The information referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be retained for a period of 5 years commencing on the date of the termination of the business relationship or on the date of the carrying out of the occasional transaction, or on the date of refusal to enter into a business relationship or carry out an occasional transaction. Without prejudice to retention periods for data collected for the purposes of other Union legal acts or national law complying with Regulation (EU) 2016/679, obliged entities shall delete personal data upon expiry of the five-year period.

Competent authorities may require further retention of the information referred to in the first subparagraph on a case-by-case basis, provided that such retention is necessary for the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of money laundering or terrorist financing. That further retention period shall not exceed 5 years.

The article continues in the official text.