Sunday, 24 March 2019

KYC SHORT NOTES:2


KYC SHORT NOTES:1



47.    Role of Ordering, Intermediary and Beneficiary banks

(i)   Ordering Bank : An ordering bank is the one that originates a wire transfer as per the order placed by its customer. The ordering bank must ensure that qualifying wire transfers contain complete originator information. The bank must also verify and preserve the information at least for a period of five years.
(ii)   Intermediary bank : For both cross-border and domestic wire transfers, a bank processing an intermediary element of a chain of wire transfers must ensure that all originator information accompanying a wire transfer is retained with the transfer. Where technical limitations prevent full originator information accompanying a cross-border wire transfer from remaining with a related domestic wire transfer, a record must be kept at least for five years (as required under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002) by the receiving intermediary bank of all the information received from the ordering bank.
(iii)   Beneficiary bank :A beneficiary bank should have effective risk-based procedures in place to identify wire transfers lacking complete originator information. The lack of complete originator information may be considered as a factor in assessing whether a wire transfer or related transactions are suspicious and whether they should be reported to the Financial Intelligence Unit-India. The beneficiary bank should also take up the matter with the ordering bank if a transaction is not accompanied by detailed information of the fund remitter. If the ordering bank fails to furnish information on the remitter, the beneficiary bank should consider restricting or even terminating its business relationship with the ordering bank.

48.    Maintenance of records of transactions : Banks/FIs should introduce a system of maintaining proper record of transactions prescribed under Rule 3 of Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005 (PML Rules, 2005), as mentioned below:
(i)   All cash transactions of the value of more than Rupees Ten Lakh or its equivalent in foreign currency.
(ii)Series of all cash transactions individually valued below Rupees Ten Lakh, or its equivalent in foreign currency which are that have taken place within a month and the monthly aggregate which exceeds rupees ten lakhs or its equivalent in foreign currency. It is clarified that for determining ‘integrally connected transactions’ ‘all accounts of the same customer’ should be taken into account.
1.      All transactions involving receipts by non-profit organisations of value more than rupees ten lakh or its equivalent in foreign currency [Ref: Government of India Notification dated November 12, 2009- Rule 3,subrule (1) clause (BA) of PML Rules]
2.      All cash transactions ; where forged or counterfeit currency notes or bank notes have been used as genuine and where any forgery of a valuable security or a document has taken place facilitating the transaction and
3.                   All suspicious transactions, whether or not in cash, made as mentioned in the Rules
49.    Banks/FIs are required to maintain all necessary information in respect of transactions prescribed under PML Rule 3 so as to permit reconstruction of individual transaction, including the following information: (i) the nature of the transactions; (ii) the amount of the transaction and the currency in which it was denominated; (iii) the date on which the transaction was conducted; and (iv) the parties to the transaction.
50.    In terms of PML Amendment Act 2012, banks/FIs should maintain for at least five years from the date of transaction between the bank/FI and the client, all necessary records of transactions, both domestic or international, which will permit reconstruction of individual transactions (including the amounts and types of currency involved, if any) so as to provide, if necessary, evidence for prosecution of persons involved in criminal activity.
51.    Banks/FIs should ensure that records pertaining to the identification of the customers and their address (e.g. copies of documents like passports, identity cards, driving licenses, PAN card, utility bills, etc.) obtained while opening the account and during the course of business relationship, are properly preserved for at least five years after the business relationship is ended as required under Rule 10 of the Rules ibid. The identification of records and transaction data should be made available to the competent authorities upon request.
52.    Banks/FIs may maintain records of the identity of their clients, and records in respect of transactions referred to in Rule 3 in hard or soft format.
53.    Combating Financing of Terrorism : The United Nations periodically circulates the following two lists of individuals and entities, suspected of having terrorist links, and as approved by its Security Council (UNSC).
(a)  The “Al-Qaida Sanctions List”, includes names of individuals and entities associated with the Al-Qaida.
(b)   The “1988 Sanctions List”, consisting of individuals (Section A of the consolidated list) and entities.
54.    The United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs), received from Government of India, are circulated by the Reserve Bank to all banks and FIs. Banks/FIs are required to update the lists and take them into account for implementation of Section 51A of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) (UAPA) Act, 1967, discussed below. Banks/FIs should ensure that they do not have any account in the name of individuals/entities appearing in the above lists. Details of accounts resembling any of the individuals/entities in the list should be reported to FIUIND.
55.    Freezing of Assets under Section 51A of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 :

(a)   The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) has been amended by the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2008. Government has issued an Order dated August 27, 2009 (Annex II of this circular) detailing the procedure for implementation of Section 51A of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 for prevention of, and for coping with terrorist activities.
In terms of Section 51A, the Central Government is empowered to freeze, seize or attach funds and other financial assets or economic resources held by, on behalf of or at the direction of the individuals or entities listed in the Schedule to the Order, or any other person engaged in or suspected to be engaged in terrorism and prohibit any individual or entity from making any funds, financial assets or economic resources or related servicesavailable for the benefit of the individuals or entities listed in the Schedule to the Order or any other person engaged in or suspected to be engaged in terrorism.
57.    Jurisdictions that do not or insufficiently apply the FATF Recommendations:
(a)   Banks/FIs are required to take into account risks arising from the deficiencies in AML/CFT regime of the jurisdictions included in the FATF Statement. In addition to FATF Statements circulated by Reserve Bank of India from time to time, banks/FIs should also consider publicly available information for identifying countries, which do not or insufficiently apply the FATF Recommendations. It is clarified that banks/FIs should also give special attention to business relationships and transactions with persons (including legal persons and other financial institutions) from or in countries that do not or insufficiently apply the FATF Recommendations and jurisdictions included in FATF Statements. (b) Banks/FIs should examine the background and purpose of transactions with persons (including legal persons and other financial institutions) from jurisdictions included in FATF Statements and countries that do not or insufficiently apply the FATF Recommendations. Further, if the transactions have no apparent economic or visible lawful purpose, the background and purpose of such transactions should, as far as possible be examined, and written findings together with all documents should be retained and made available to Reserve Bank/other relevant authorities, on request.
58.    In terms of the Rule 3 of the PML (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005, banks/FIs are required to furnish information relating to cash transactions, cash transactions integrally connected to each other, and all transactions involving receipts by non-profit organisations (NPO means any entity or organisation that is registered as a trust or a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 or any similar State legislation or a company registered (erstwhile Section 25 of Companies Act, 1956 ) under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013), cash transactions ;where forged or counterfeit currency notes or bank notes have been used as genuine, cross border wire transfer, etc. to the Director, Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND).

59.    FIU-IND has released a comprehensive reporting format guide to describe the specifications of prescribed reports to FIU-IND. FIU-IND has also developed a Report Generation Utility and Report Validation Utility to assist reporting entities in the preparation of prescribed reports. The Office Memorandum issued on Reporting Formats under Project FINnet dated 31st March, 2011 by FIU containing all relevant details are available on FIU’s website. Banks/FIs should carefully go through all the reporting formats prescribed by FIU-IND.
60.    FIU-IND have placed on their website editable electronic utilities to file electronic Cash Transactions Report (CTR)/ Suspicious Transactions Report (STR) to enable banks/FIs which are yet to install/adopt suitable technological tools for extracting CTR/STR from their live transaction data base. It is, therefore, advised that in cases of those banks/FIs, where all the branches are not fully computerized, the Principal Officer of the bank/FI should cull out the transaction details from branches which are not yet computerized and suitably arrange to feed the data into an electronic file with the help of the editable electronic utilities of CTR/STR as have been made available by FIU-IND on their website http://fiuindia.gov.in.
In terms of Rule 8, while furnishing information to the Director, FIU-IND, delay of each day in not reporting a transaction or delay of each day in rectifying a misrepresented transaction beyond the time limit as specified in the Rule shall constitute a separate violation. Banks/FIs are advised to take note of the timeliness of the reporting requirements.
62.    Reports to be furnished to FIU-IND :
1)   Cash Transaction Report (CTR)
2)   Suspicious Transaction Reports (STR)
3)   Non-Profit Organisation
4)   Cross-border Wire Transfer
63.    The CTR for each month should be submitted to FIU-IND by 15th of the succeeding month. Cash transaction reporting by branches to their controlling offices should, therefore, invariably be submitted on monthly basis and banks/FIs should ensure to submit CTR for every month to FIU-IND within the prescribed time schedule.
64.    All cash transactions, where forged or counterfeit Indian currency notes have been used as genuine should be reported by the Principal Officer of the bank to FIU-IND in the specified format(Counterfeit Currency Report – CCR), by 15thday of the next month. These cash transactions should also include transactions where forgery of valuable security or documents has taken place and may be reported to FIU-IND in plain text form.
65.    While filing CTR, details of individual transactions below Rupees Fifty thousand need not be furnished. CTR should contain only the transactions carried out by the bank on behalf of their clients/customers excluding transactions between the internal accounts of the bank.
66.    A summary of cash transaction reports for the bank as a whole should be compiled by the Principal Officer of the bank every month in physical form as per the format specified. The summary should be signed by the Principal Officer and submitted to FIU-IND. In case of CTRs compiled centrally by banks for the branches having Core Banking Solution (CBS) at their central data centre, banks may generate centralised CTRs in respect of the branches under core banking solution at one point for onward transmission to FIU-IND, provided the CTR is to be generated in the format prescribed by FIU-IND.
67.    A copy of the monthly CTR submitted to FIU-India in respect of the branches should be available at the branches for production to auditors/inspectors, when asked for; and instruction on ‘Maintenance of records of transactions’; and ‘Preservation of records’ should be scrupulously followed by the branches. However, in respect of branches not under CBS, the monthly CTR should continue to be compiled and forwarded by the branch to the Principal Officer for onward transmission to FIU-IND.

68.    It is likely that in some cases transactions are abandoned/aborted by customers on being asked to give some details or to provide documents. It is clarified that banks/FIs should report all such attempted transactions in STRs, even if not completed by the customers, irrespective of the amount of the transaction.
69.    The STR should be furnished within seven days of arriving at a conclusion that any transaction, whether cash or non-cash, or a series of transactions integrally connected are of suspicious nature. The Principal Officer should record his reasons for treating any transaction or a series of transactions as suspicious. It should be ensured that there is no undue delay in arriving at such a conclusion once a suspicious transaction report is received from a branch or any other office. Such report should be made available to the competent authorities on request.
70.    Banks/FIs should not put any restrictions on operations in the accounts where an STR has been filed. Banks/FIs and their employees should keep the fact of furnishing of STR strictly confidential, as required under PML Rules. It should be ensured that there is no tipping off to the customer at any level.
71.    The report of all transactions involving receipts by non- profit organizations of value more than rupees ten lakh or its equivalent in foreign currency should be submitted every month to the Director, FIU-IND by 15th of the succeeding month in the prescribed format.
72.    Cross-border Wire Transfer Report (CWTR) is required to be filed with FIU-IND by 15th of succeeding month for all cross border wire transfers of the value of more than five lakh rupees or its equivalent in foreign currency where either the origin or destination of fund is in India.
73.    Banks/FIs may nominate a Director on their Boards as “designated Director”, as required under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005 (Rules), to ensure compliance with the obligations under the Act and Rules. The name, designation and address of the Designated Director may be communicated to the FIU-IND. UCBs/ State Cooperative Banks / Central Cooperative Banks can also designate a person who holds the position of senior management or equivalent as a 'Designated Director'. However, in no case, the Principal Officer should be nominated as the 'Designated Director'.
74.    Principal Officer: Banks/FIs may appoint a senior officer as Principal Officer (PO). The PO should be independent and report directly to the senior management or to the Board of Directors. The PO shall be responsible for ensuring compliance, monitoring transactions, and sharing and reporting information as required under the law/regulations. The name, designation and address of the Principal Officer may be communicated to the FIU-IND.
75.    The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) has been amended and notified on 31.12.2008, which, inter-alia, inserted Section 51A to the Act. Section 51A reads as under:-"51A. For the prevention of, and for coping with terrorist activities, the Central Government shall have power to – (a) freeze, seize or attach funds and other financial assets or economic resources held by, on behalf of or at the direction of the individuals or entities Listed in the Schedule to the Order, or any other person engaged in or suspected to be engaged in terrorism; (b) prohibit any individual or entity from making any funds, financial assets or economic resources or related services available for the benefit of the individuals or entities Listed in the Schedule to the Order or any other person engaged in or suspected to be engaged in terrorism; (c) prevent the entry into or the transit through India of individuals Listed in the Schedule to the Order or any other person engaged in or suspected to be engaged in terrorism.
76.    The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act define "Order" as under:- "Order" means the Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (Implementation of Security Council Resolutions) Order, 2007, as may be amended from time to time. In order to expeditiously and effectively implement the provisions of Section 51A, the following procedures shall be followed:-
77.    Appointment and Communication of details of UAPA nodal officers
As regards appointment and communication of details of UAPA nodal officers -

(i)   The UAPA nodal officer for IS-I division would be the Joint Secretary (IS.I), Ministry of Home Affairs. His contact details are 01123092736(Tel), 011-23092569(Fax) and e-mail. (ii) The Ministry of External Affairs, Department of Economic Affairs, Foreigners Division of MHA, FIU-IND; and RBI, SEBI, IRDA (hereinafter referred to as Regulators) shall appoint a UAPA nodal officer and communicate the name and contact details to the IS-I Division in MHA. (iii) The States and UTs should appoint a UAPA nodal officer preferably of the rank of the Principal Secretary/Secretary, Home Department and communicate the name and contact details to the IS-I Division in MHA. (iv) The IS-I Division in MHA would maintain the consolidated list of all UAPA nodal officers and forward the list to all other UAPA nodal officers. (v) The RBI, SEBI, IRDA should forward the consolidated list of UAPA nodal officers to the banks, stock exchanges/depositories, intermediaries regulated by SEBI and insurance companies respectively. (vi) The consolidated list of the UAPA nodal officers should be circulated to the nodal officer of IS-I Division of MHA in July every year and on every change. Joint Secretary(IS-I), being the nodal officer of IS-I Division of MHA, shall cause the amended list of UAPA nodal officers to be circulated to the nodal officers of Ministry of External Affairs, Department of Economic Affairs, Foreigners Division of MHA, RBI, SEBI, IRDA and FIU-IND.

78.    Regarding funds, financial assets or economic resources or related services held in the form of bank accounts, stocks or insurance policies etc.

(i)    Maintain updated designated lists in electronic form and run a check on the given parameters on a regular basis to verify whether individuals or entities listed in the schedule to the Order (referred to as designated individuals/entities) are holding any funds, financial assets or economic resources or related services held in the form of bank accounts, stocks or insurance policies etc. with them.
(ii)      In case, the particulars of any of their customers match with the particulars of designated individuals/entities, the banks, stock exchanges/ depositories, intermediaries regulated by SEBI and insurance companies shall immediately, not later than 24 hours from the time of finding out such customer, inform full particulars of the funds, financial assets or economic resources or related services held in the form of bank accounts, stocks or insurance policies etc.
(iii)      The banks, stock exchanges/ depositories, intermediaries regulated by SEBI and insurance companies shall also send by post a copy of the communication mentioned in (ii) above to the UAPA nodal officer of the state/ UT where the account is held and Regulators and FIU-IND, as the case may be.
(iv)  In case, the match of any of the customers with the particulars of designated individuals/entities is beyond doubt, the banks stock exchanges / depositories, intermediaries regulated by SEBI and insurance companies would prevent designated persons from conducting financial transactions, under intimation to Joint Secretary (IS.I), Ministry of Home Affairs.
(v)  The banks, stock exchanges/depositories, intermediaries regulated by SEBI and insurance companies shall file a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) with FIU-IND covering all transactions in the accounts

79.    In case, the results of the verification indicate that the properties are owned by or held for the benefit of the designated individuals/entities, an order to freeze these assets under section 51A of the UAPA would be issued within 24 hours of such verification and conveyed electronically to the concerned bank branch, depository, branch of insurance company branch under intimation to respective Regulators and FIU-IND.
80.    In case, the designated individuals/entities are holding financial assets or economic resources of the nature of immovable property and if any match with the designated individuals/entities is found, the UAPA nodal officer of the State/UT would cause communication of the complete particulars of such individual/entity along with complete details of the financial assets or economic resources of the nature of immovable property to the Joint Secretary (IS.I), Ministry of Home Affairs, immediately within 24 hours.

No comments:

Post a Comment