KYC Banking Regulations Checklist to Ensure Customers’ Identities
The exponential rise in the internet enhances money laundering and drug dealing. To reduce these scams, banks make opening an account more challenging. Customers have to comply with the rigorous regulations of banks. Customers must meet know-your-customer (KYC) banking regulations. It is critical to mitigating customer risk and a legal requirement to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CFT) laws. An effective procedure to comply with KYC involves knowing the customer better by identity verification, monitoring transaction activities, and risk assessments.
KYC has a vital role in monitoring customer activities and proofing the identity of customers. The regulator’s authorities enforce KYC banking regulations and set rigorous rules. Banks follow these rules and guidelines to verify the customer identity and the risk of onboarding these customers. AML/KYC regulations aim to reduce money laundering and other illicit activities before it materializes.
History of KYC Regulation
KYC law first time came in 1970, the US passed the bank secretary law to reduce the flow of money laundering. The amendment in this law came after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and the 2008 global financial crisis. The Patriot Act is enacted by law enforcement to tighten the KYC procedure, which includes the Customer Identity Programme (CIP) and Customer Due Diligence (CDD). Clients who need to use a bank’s services must follow KYC regulations.
What are the Requirements For KYC Banking Regulations?
Compliance with KYC banking regulations falls into three steps:
- Customer Identity Program (CIP)
- Customer Due Diligence (CDD)
- Enhance Due Diligence (EDD)
Customer Identity Program (CIP)
This process requires customers to provide personal information, including name, date of birth, contact, and official email. In order to register an account, organizations must also provide an identification number and validation code. Customers have to submit documents for identity verification. KYC compliance process attests these documents and ensures papers are authentic and legalized. To effectively follow the KYC banking regulations, agents utilize machine learning and the latest technology and check the provided papers against the government and public databases. This process ensures the customer is not involved in any illicit activities. Banks ensure customers’ data is not matched with the politically exposed and money laundering criminals’ lists.
Moreover, it also utilizes machine learning algorithms to conduct customer risk assessments. This provides banks with information about the customer’s history and funding source. By monitoring customer history, the banks make sure they do not onboard fraudsters and criminals. The CIP was created to enhance the strength of KYC regulations. It safeguards financial institutions from money laundering, terrorist funding, and other illicit actions. It is essential because it reveals the hidden truth about the customer by monitoring their previous affairs. The main aim of KYC is to detect the customer’s identity and ensure they arethe same person they claim to be.
Customer Due Diligence (CDD)
After verifying customers’ identity, to comply with CDD, banks monitor the real-time transactions of the customers. It enhances the monitoring of customers’ activities. It also identifies the change in the behavior of transactions. Banks can protect themselves from illicit activities by detecting red flags. In the CDD, banks also check customers’ relationships with other businesses. It is a process to take an overview of the market in which customers operate. This procedure of KYC banking regulations provides them with a basic overview of the customers.
Customers’ Due Diligence is a vital component in the battle against money laundering, a crime in which the proceeds of unlawful activity are disguised as legitimate cash. CDD is essential to determine the risk of the particular customer because each customer carries various risks. It assists banks with different risk assessments technique to enhance their KYC rules. Banks should constantly assess each customer’s potential risk and adjust the due diligence process accordingly. For the CDD, banks must verify their activities and identity verification.
Enhance Due Diligence (EDD)
With some clients, simple due diligence is not enough for banks. They must implement enhanced due diligence (EDD) to comply with KYC banking regulations. There are cases where high risk is identified, such as for politically exposed persons (PEPs), foreign business owners, and customer dealing in high-risk industries. Banks must comply with enhanced due diligence (EDD) for these customers.
To comply with the latest KYC banking regulations, banks need to verify the business’s ultimate beneficial owner (UOB) and the source of customer funds. Implementing EDD is essential for banks to develop a risk-free environment for high-risk associated customers. Moreover, ensure the customer is not involved in any illicit activities.
Key Highlights From KYC Banking Regulations
Overall, banks must follow the KYC banking regulations. They should conduct the CIP, CDD, or EDD to ensure the customer is legitimate. Banks can get more benefits from the rigorous obligations by leveraging the technology. Machine learning and AI’s latest inventions reap accurate results examined thoroughly by verification documents. Additionally, it reduces the chance of errors and enhances customer satisfaction.
