Seychelles Financial Institutions Urged to Enhance Customer Due Diligence Measures

The Seychelles Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has issued new regulations requiring financial institutions to enhance their customer due diligence measures in order to combat money laundering, financing of terrorism, and other criminal conduct.

Enhanced Customer Due Diligence Measures Required

As of [insert date], licensed banks, bureaus de change, and other reporting entities are required to apply enhanced customer due diligence measures in certain situations. These include:

Dealing with customers who are politically exposed persons
Dealing with customers from countries that do not fully comply with anti-money laundering standards
Shell banks, which are defined as banks that are incorporated in countries where they have no physical presence and are not subject to effective consolidated supervision

Financial institutions will be required to gather more information about their customers, including:

Source of wealth and funds
Conduct enhanced ongoing monitoring of business relationships and transactions

Guidelines for Reliance on Other Regulated Persons

The FIU has also issued guidelines for regulated persons, such as licensed banks and bureaus de change, that are allowed to rely on other regulated persons to perform customer due diligence measures. These guidelines set out the requirements for such reliance, including:

The need for a written agreement with the relied-upon institution
Requirements for ongoing monitoring of business relationships and transactions

Record-Keeping Requirements

Reporting entities must maintain records of all transactions and customer information for at least five years, and make these records available to the FIU upon request.

Purpose of New Regulations

The Seychelles government has emphasized that the new regulations are aimed at protecting the country’s financial system from abuse by money launderers and terrorist financiers. The FIU will be responsible for monitoring compliance with the regulations and taking enforcement action where necessary.

Key Requirements:

Licensed banks, bureaus de change, and other reporting entities must apply enhanced customer due diligence measures in certain situations
Financial institutions must gather more information about their customers, including source of wealth and funds
Enhanced ongoing monitoring of business relationships and transactions is required
Reporting entities must maintain records of all transactions and customer information for at least five years
The FIU will monitor compliance with the regulations and take enforcement action where necessary

Key Dates:

[Insert date]: Effective date of new regulations
[Insert date]: Deadline for financial institutions to review and update their customer due diligence procedures