Financial Institutions Must Verify Customer Identity

Requirements for Financial Institutions

In accordance with the Fiji Financial Transactions Reporting Act, financial institutions must adhere to specific guidelines when identifying and verifying their customers. These guidelines require financial institutions to collect a minimum set of details from customers, including:

• Name
• Address
• Occupation
• Nature of self-employment (if applicable)

Acceptable Identification Documents

Financial institutions may use documents other than those listed in Appendix 1 to identify and verify a customer, provided that such documents are:

• Reliable
• Independent
• Reasonably capable of verifying the identity of the customer

Simplified Customer Identification Requirements

There are certain circumstances where financial institutions may simplify their customer identification requirements. For example:

• Customers who have been assessed as having a low risk of engaging in money laundering or terrorist financing activities, such as:
  • Children
  • Students
  • Rural farmers
  • Casual employees
• May be exempted from providing additional documentation

Enhanced Identification Measures for High-Risk Customers

Customers who are considered high-risk, including:

• Non-resident customers
• Non-face-to-face customers
• Individuals previously reported in FIU Alert Notices
• Politically exposed persons (PEPs) and their family members and close associates

Must undergo enhanced identification measures.

Identifying PEPs and Associated Individuals

Financial institutions are required to take reasonable measures to determine whether a customer is a PEP or associated with one. This may include:

• Obtaining information on the occupation of foreigners
• Verifying customer names through databases
• Including questions about association with PEPs in account opening forms for foreigners

Non-Face-to-Face Customers

In establishing business relationships with non-face-to-face customers, financial institutions must conduct additional identification and verification procedures to supplement those applied to face-to-face customers. These procedures may include:

• Certification of identification documents
• Request for additional documents
• Independent contact with the customer

Purpose of Guidelines

The guidelines aim to ensure that financial institutions effectively identify and verify their customers to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing activities in Fiji.