In Ukraine, banks are required to regularly check their clients to ensure data is up-to-date and to prevent financial crimes. In particular, it concerns identification and verification of the person, which are important elements in banking processes.
Lawyer Andriy Shabelnikov told Channel 24 that clients are often required to undergo identification or verification when receiving a message from a bank. Identification is providing the bank with the client's identification data, while verification is confirming the correspondence of this data at the time of the transaction.
According to the law, banks have the right to require repeated identification in several cases:
- Expiration of documents : If the client's passport or other identification document has expired, the bank has the right to require data updates to ensure the information is up-to-date.
- Periodic checks to prevent financial crimes : As part of the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, banks are required to periodically check their customers. This may include updating data or providing additional documents.
- Suspicion of forgery of documents or data : If the bank receives information about possible forgery of documents or inaccuracies in the data provided, it may temporarily suspend access to the account until the situation is clarified.
Lawyer Anna Daniel adds that identification and verification must be carried out before a business relationship is established, transactions are carried out or an account is opened. She noted that the bank can carry out the verification based on the client's documents or simultaneously using information received by the bank.
Updating data in banks
According to representatives of the National Bank of Ukraine, as part of due diligence, banks must regularly update information about their clients. The timing of data updates depends on the level of risk associated with the client:
- High-risk clients should be screened at least once a year.
- Medium-risk clients should be screened at least once every three years.
- For low-risk clients , the check should be carried out at least once every five years, provided there are no suspicions.
Thus, banks not only ensure the relevance of customer data, but also play an important role in preventing financial crimes, in particular, money laundering and terrorist financing.
