Financial Crime World

Burundi Adopts Stringent Banking Regulations to Combat Money Laundering and Terror Financing

In its effort to combat money laundering and terror financing, Burundi has implemented strict banking regulations that require financial institutions to adhere to Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) guidelines.

Alignment with International Standards

As a member of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG), which is affiliated with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Burundi’s regulations align with international standards. The primary legislation governing KYC/AML in Burundi is the Burundi Law No. 1/23 of June 23, 2014, on the prevention and suppression of money laundering and terrorist financing.

Key Requirements

The law requires financial institutions to:

  • Conduct thorough customer due diligence, including identity verification
  • Monitor transactions for suspicious activity
  • Obtain users’ consent before processing and transferring personal data

Regulatory Bodies

Regulatory bodies such as the Banque de la République du Burundi (BRB) and the Burundi Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) are responsible for enforcing these regulations.

Compliance Solution

To ensure compliance with these regulations, financial institutions in Burundi can turn to Smile ID’s instant AML and KYC compliance solution. The company’s identity verification solution enables businesses to effortlessly comply with AML and KYC requirements by:

  • Verifying customer identities
  • Conducting streamlined user onboarding

Benefits of Smile ID’s Solution

  • Utilizes de-biased models with a 99.8% accuracy rate for all African skin tones
  • Ideal solution for financial institutions operating in Burundi
  • SDKs are optimized for low bandwidth and compatible with software versions as old as Android 5.0, ensuring seamless integration with existing infrastructure
  • Conducts global AML checks against over 1,100 global sanctions, PEPs, and adverse media watchlists
  • Provides enterprise-level security standards, including ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 1 & 2 certifications

ID Document Verification

Financial institutions in Burundi can verify user identities using a range of ID documents, including:

  • National IDs
  • Resident IDs
  • Passports
  • Driver’s licenses
  • More

Smile ID’s solution checks that an ID document is authentic, accurately transcribes the text on the document, and compares a user-submitted selfie to the document image.

Conclusion

By adopting Smile ID’s AML and KYC compliance solution, financial institutions in Burundi can ensure adherence to regulatory requirements while providing a seamless user experience. With instant customer identity verification and streamlined user onboarding, businesses can focus on growing their operations while maintaining compliance with banking regulations.