Anti-Money Laundering Requirements
Did you know that as accountants we are required to comply with the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 for which the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) is the supervisor for accounting practices. We raise this now as we are doing our annual review of clients and you may be required to assist us with our obligations.
The AML/CFT system has been designed to help businesses achieve the level of compliance required to assist authorities to deter and detect criminal customers.
A key requirement of our obligations are that for certain clients and business structures we are required to complete customer due diligence. This means that as your accountant we have to undertake a number of steps to ensure that the information we received from you is correct. It is not us being nosey or difficult but rather a requirement of the law.
We will need to obtain and verify certain information from you to meet these legal requirements, including your full name, date of birth and address. To confirm these details you will be required to provide documents such as your current driver’s licence or passport. Furthermore we will be asking for documents that show your address – such as a utility bill.
If you are asked to provide documents we offer the following options:
If you are contacted about providing documents please do NOT ignore our request as it is a legal process we must follow and it can have adverse consequences for both us and yourself if you do not provide the documents.
The AML/CFT system has been designed to help businesses achieve the level of compliance required to assist authorities to deter and detect criminal customers.
A key requirement of our obligations are that for certain clients and business structures we are required to complete customer due diligence. This means that as your accountant we have to undertake a number of steps to ensure that the information we received from you is correct. It is not us being nosey or difficult but rather a requirement of the law.
We will need to obtain and verify certain information from you to meet these legal requirements, including your full name, date of birth and address. To confirm these details you will be required to provide documents such as your current driver’s licence or passport. Furthermore we will be asking for documents that show your address – such as a utility bill.
If you are asked to provide documents we offer the following options:
- Uploaded to our online portal, please note that if you provide them electronically we will arrange a zoom meeting to confirm the photo on the ID against the person present in the meeting; or
- Every Wednesday between 9.30am and 11.30am we will have a dedicated period where you can drop off the documents off for verification. Team members will also be available for short meetings if you have anything you wish to discuss and you will receive a small thank you for allowing us to comply with our AML obligations.
If you are contacted about providing documents please do NOT ignore our request as it is a legal process we must follow and it can have adverse consequences for both us and yourself if you do not provide the documents.
Other Bulletin Articles
