KYC - Due Diligence
Our philosophy is that any successful
business relationship must be based on mutual trust, openness and
understanding.
For the protection of all our stakeholders, we have strict policies
in place to prevent our services being abused for illegal purposes
such as money laundering or the financing of terrorism. We balance
this with a keen understanding of the realities of doing business in
different parts of the world. Group members have therefore
implemented a risk-based approach to Customer Acceptance policies.
Together, this forms our “Know Your Client” or KYC procedure.
We do not do business anonymously. Our over-riding intention and
obligation is to develop and document a clear picture of
who
we are dealing with, where they live, what their business is and
what is their source of wealth. In some cases this will
be obvious and easy to establish for both ourselves and the client,
while in some cases it will be more complex. We do understand
cultural differences in Asia when compared to North American or
European standards. Documents are only one
part of this process, albeit an important part especially in non
face-to-face transactions. In general clients should expect to send
us the following documentation:
PROOF OF IDENTITY –
The preferred document is an internationally-valid passport. If the
client does not have a passport, other documents may be accepted
depending on the jurisdiction of issue. For example we may accept
internal passports of the Russian Federation, national or state IDs
or drivers licenses issued within the US, Canada and the European
Union, or any other government-issued document where the compliance
officer is confident that the document is valid and accurately
identifies the subject.
PROOF OF ADDRESS –
This must be proven by documents such as utility bills, bank or
credit card statements, recent certificate of residence issued by a
government authority etc, or a check of public records.
EXPLANATION OF SOURCE OF WEALTH AND FUNDS AND PURPOSE OF STRUCTURE –
This will be subject to review by a qualified compliance officer
with experience of business realities in the geographic region of
the client, who may verify information against third party databases
or ask additional questions if he or she is not immediately able to
develop a clear understanding of the client’s business activities.
People and businesses
change with time and we also have an ongoing responsibility to continue
to understand our clients’ businesses. This continued mutual
understanding and trust makes business run more smoothly and prevents
costly and inconvenient misunderstandings.
If you have any questions about our KYC or Due Diligence procedures,
please contact your Consultant who will be
pleased to assist you. |
