Financial Crime World

Anti-Money Laundering Guidelines for Financial Institutions in Belgium

Introduction

The National Bank of Belgium (NBB) has established Anti-Money Laundering (AML) guidelines for financial institutions in Belgium. These guidelines outline the measures to be taken to identify and verify customers’ identities, agents’ powers of representation, beneficial owners, and report suspicious transactions.

Identification and Verification of Customers’ Identities

  • Name, Address, Date of Birth, Nationality, and Occupation: Financial institutions must have an internal procedure to identify and verify customers’ identities.
  • Agents’ Identification and Powers of Representation: For agents, similar identification rules apply, with additional procedures for ascertaining their powers of representation in accordance with Article 12, 4°, of the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation of the NBB.

Gaining Insight into Ownership and Control Structure

  • Societies, Legal Persons, Foundations, Fiducies, Trusts, or Similar Arrangements: The procedure should contain specific rules for gaining insight into the ownership and control structure of customers or agents that are societies, legal persons, foundations, fiducies, trusts, or similar arrangements, in accordance with Article 12, 5°, of the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation of the NBB.

Identifying Beneficial Owners

  • Measures to Identify and Verify Identity: The internal procedure should provide precise rules regarding the measures to be taken to identify and verify the identity of beneficial owners, including those of customers, agents, or beneficiaries of life insurance contracts, in accordance with Article 12, 6°, of the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation of the NBB.

Delaying Identification and Verification

  • Conditions for Delay: If a financial institution decides to delay the verification of a customer’s identity under certain conditions, as specified by Article 31 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law, the internal procedure should contain a precise list of circumstances in which this can be used.
  • Measures for Verification: Measures for performing the verification as soon as possible after first contact.

Inability to Fulfill Obligations

  • Special Investigation: In cases where customers or agents cannot be identified or their identities verified due to technical reasons or otherwise, financial institutions must have procedures in place to conduct a special investigation to determine whether a suspicion should be reported to CTIF-CFI under Article 46 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law.

Customer Acceptance Procedure

  • Risk Classification: The internal procedure should list the relevant information to be obtained from customers depending on their risk classification, including their characteristics and the purpose and nature of the business relationship or occasional transaction.