(Last updated on August 04, 2024) Know Your Customer (KYC) standards are designed to protect financial institutions against fraud, corruption, money laundering, and terrorist financing. KYC involves several steps to: establish customer identity; understand the nature of customers’ activities and qualify that the source of funds is legitimate; KYC involves several steps to (i) establish…
Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a US Law that requires foreign financial institutions to identify and report on the assets held by US account holders through enhanced due diligence reviews and report them periodically to the U.S. The report is in line with local FATCA regulations, based on citizenship. The purpose of FATCA…
A person shall be guilty of offence of money-laundering if such person is found to have directly or indirectly attempted to indulge or knowingly assisted or knowingly is a party or is involved in one or more of the following processes or activities connected with proceeds of crime, namely:— (a) concealment; or (b) possession; or…
Correspondent banking refers to a banking relationship between two banks, where one bank (the “correspondent bank”) provides banking services to another bank (the “respondent bank”), allowing the respondent banks to access services in foreign markets. Correspondent Banking relationships are essential in facilitating the cross-border payment system and vital to international trade and investments. A risk-based…
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an international policy-making and standard-setting body dedicated to tackling money laundering, terrorist, and proliferation financing. It is a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog that sets international standards that aim to prevent these illegal activities and the harm they cause to society. The FATF constantly identifies and…
Enhanced due diligence (EDD) is a set of additional measures that financial institutions have to implement to check and monitor high-risk customers and unusual transactions for potential money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) activities. Enhanced due diligence (EDD) is an in-depth KYC process that can help to identify high-risk customers including politically exposed persons (PEPs).…
Money laundering is the process wherein criminals attempt to conceal their booty and make an attempt to cover them as a legitimate source of income. The bill on money laundering described it as an offence (i) when a crime has been committed. (ii)There are proceeds or gains from the crime. (iii) There is a transaction…
Section 2[(wa) of PMLA Act 2002, states that a “reporting entity” means a banking company, financial institution, intermediary, or a person carrying on a designated business or profession. The Ministry of Finance vide notification dated May 03, 2023 (‘Notification’) has widened the ambit of the term “Reporting Entity” as defined in Section 2(1)(wa), read with…
Rule 2(1)(g) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002 (PMLA-2002) defines suspicious transactions as “A transaction whether or not made in cash which, to a person acting in good faith- (a) gives rise to a reasonable ground of suspicion that it may involve the proceeds of crime; or (b) appears to be made…
In the realm of risk management and compliance, Customer Due Diligence (CDD) is a pivotal player. The Customer Due Diligence meaning, often abbreviated as CDD, is a process that financial institutions, businesses, and other organisations use to gather information about their customers and clients to identify and mitigate risks such as money laundering, financing terrorism,…