|
In order to ensure the activity unfolding according to the provisions of Law no. 656/2002, with its subsequent amendments and adjustments, of the Government Decision no. 594/2008 and of the NBR Regulations no. 9/2008, Bank Leumi adopted internal norms related to know your customer principles that could prevent the utilization of the institution as an instrument to perform certain activities aiming at money laundering or terrorism financing acts.
The credit institutions have the obligation to meet the KYC principles regarding the clients with whom they started a business relationship. Accordingly, it relates to the characteristic/nature of the business performed with/through the bank. In order to meet this obligation, the banks should identify their clients according to the legal procedures, should follow-up the transactions within the accounts, should understand the core meaning of the client’s transactions and obtain relevant documents for these transactions.
The questions/requirements of the account officers are meant to guarantee the fact that both the bank and the client perform operations according to the legislation in force, and these requirements are not to be construed as deriving from the curiosity of the banking officers. It is thought that an earnest citizen who performs an operation does not have any reason to hide fundamental information from the bank that he/she works with. On the contrary, the refusal to cooperate and to answer the questions that the account officer is obliged to ask for based on the law, raise doubts regarding the legitimacy of the transaction requested.
The credit institutions will establish the category of clients and transactions with potential higher risk based on the risk ratios that, if applicable, may take into account the volume of assets or revenues, the type of services requested, the type of activities performed by the client, the economic circumstances, the reputation of the country of origin, the reasonable feature of the explanations provided by the client, the pre-established values by categories of transactions.
|
