Introduction
The Financial Institutions (Know Your Customer)
Guidelines, 2007, also referred to as KYC
Guidelines, require financial institutions to
perform customer identification procedure on all
customers. This means that financial institutions
are required by law to verify not only the identity
of its customers, but the customers’ residential
addresses, and source and purpose of income/funds.
The KYC Guidelines in Brief
The main objectives of the KYC Guidelines are:
-
To outline basic procedures that financial
institutions shall ensure are in place in order to assist in suppressing
unwanted vices through the banking system nationally
and internationally;
-
To prevent the financial institutions from being
used, intentionally or unintentionally, by criminal
elements for money laundering activities; and
-
To enable financial institutions to know or
understand their customers and their financial
dealings in order to manage their risks prudently.
Schedule II, Guideline 10(2) requires financial
institutions to verify certain features and to
obtain certain documents from customers, which
documents are listed in Schedule II of the KYC
Guidelines. This means that financial institutions
need to develop ways of educating clients about
these requirements in order to ensure compliance
with the KYC Guidelines.
Nedbank Lesotho Limited’s Approach
As from the date of commencement of the Guidelines
the Bank has sent out letters and posted brochures
in its branches to educate clients about the KYC
Guidelines and notify them of the verification
process. Posters depicting Anti-Money Laundering
(AML) and KYC messages have also been displayed in
the branches.
Clients are encouraged to call Client Care or
Nedbank branches in their area for further
clarification on these requirements.
Documents
