New Product Announcement: Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) Screening Service
VerifyInvestor.com
Who are your investors? Do you know?
It’s a question that every financial business or firm onboarding customers or investors needs to be able to answer definitively.
Not only because it’s good business, but because it’s the law.
In our rapidly evolving financial landscape, knowing your customer is a critical part of the onboarding process. As technology advances and investment fraud reaches new heights, financial institutions and businesses are under increasing pressure to comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations.
KYC practices are essential to protect firms from fraud, corruption, money laundering, and terrorist financing. But handling in-house verification is time-consuming, burdensome, and expensive Additionally, finding reliable third-party verification services that don’t require a large minimum purchase is difficult.
If that’s your situation — and you are looking for an affordable, yet comprehensive AML/KYC solution designed to ensure compliance, mitigate risk, and protect your business from potential bad actors — you’re in luck.
On August 1, 2024, VerifyInvestors.com is launching its newest product — the Anti-money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) Screening Service.
What are KYC and AML?
Verifying a customer’s identity, determining that their fund sources are legitimate, and assessing their level of risk is at the heart of any KYC (“Know Your Customer”) program.
In the investment industry, KYC is a mandatory process that is part of the federal anti-money laundering (AML) legal requirements. KYC is an industry-standard that requires advisors, financial institutions, and other regulated entities to verify their clients’ identities.
Two federal rules govern KYC: Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Rule 2111 (Suitability) and Rule 2090 (Know Your Customer).
Arising out of Title III of the USA PATRIOT Act, passed in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the KYC verification process has several components to it. Briefly, these include:
Customer identification program (CIP) — this requires firms to collect certain identifying information from clients when they open an account,
Customer due diligence (CDD) — covered financial institutions, including broker-dealers, are required to create programs designed to assess the risks of illegal activity that a customer poses, and
Enhanced due diligence (EDD) — for higher-risk customers, EDD requires robust procedures designed to continuously identify, assess, monitor, and mitigate the risks of doing business with high-risk clients.
Because financial institutions and entities are frequently targets for illegal activity, such as money laundering or terrorist funding, KYC programs and protocols help companies identify suspicious activity and avoid being exploited by criminals.
These regulatory requirements are designed to prevent and address the risk customers may pose for a financial institution — such as identity fraud. More importantly, however, they target money laundering activities. To do this, KYC is a part of the federally required Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations.
What is money laundering?
Money laundering is a criminal activity that involves “disguising financial assets so they can be used without detection of the illegal activity that produced them.” This can include (is not limited to) money derived from drug dealing, human trafficking, terrorist funds, or tax evasion.
Anti-Money Laundering (AML) refers to the set of laws and regulations designed to combat money laundering activities. These laws specify an array of obligations and actions that regulated entities and individuals must perform in order to prevent their services or companies from being used by criminals for money laundering purposes.
In addition to the federal AML laws, many states have their own AML requirements.
All AML/KYC laws and regulations — whether state or federal — are critically important to safeguard individuals and companies in finance. The rules and regulations are vigorously enforced. However, as the laws are constantly changing, compliance can be quite challenging.
AML/KYC Compliance
Since the passage of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) in 1970, the rules and regulations governing AML have grown increasingly more stringent and complex. Over time, certain legal loopholes have been closed, tightening up the laws. In addition, AML compliance was recently extended to encompass cryptocurrency exchanges, private companies, and arts and antiquities dealers — significantly increasing the reach of the AML rules.
Plus, AML no longer applies only to fiat currencies. In 2020, cryptocurrencies were included — requiring businesses that exchange or transmit cryptocurrencies to comply with the AML laws.
More recent developments indicate that digital assets and transactions will soon be regulated as well — to deter “virtual currency money laundering.”
As noted, compliance with the AML regulations is complex. Among other things, to meet AML requirements, companies need to:
Comply with all KYC processes
Conduct continuing customer due diligence
Develop and implement written AML policies and procedures
Develop and conduct staff training
Designate an officer responsible for overseeing AML compliance
Maintain adequate records
Implement independent audits and testing of staff and policies
Plus, staying abreast of all the requirements is difficult because they frequently change.
AML protocols are critical to safeguard financial institutions, firms, and issuers from criminal activities. But compliance can be difficult — and expensive.
Issuers and other regulated financial entities need a comprehensive, secure, effective, and affordable solution to onboard clients in an AML/KYC/ compliant manner.
We are pleased to announce that VerifyInvestor.com just made AML/KYC verification, assessment, screening, and monitoring easy, secure, and affordable.
The New Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) Screening Service.
Starting August 1, 2024, issuers, advisors, PE firms, financial institutions, and businesses will be able to access VerifyInvestor.com’s newest product — the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) Screening Service.
This is a comprehensive service designed to assist regulated entities and individuals to comply with the AML/KYC regulations — efficiently, securely, and cost-effectively. When coupled with our top-notch investor verification services, VerifyInvestor.com is your one-stop solution for both AML/KYC compliance and accredited investor verification.
Some of the exciting features the new product will provide include:
ID Verification
Liveness & Face Match
AML Screening
Ongoing AML Monitoring
Our new AML/KYC tools make screening, verification, and monitoring simple, secure, and easy. Your business stays AML/KYC compliant, while at the same time offering your customers a seamless onboarding experience.
So if you want to minimize your risk, ensure compliance, streamline your onboarding process, and stay ahead of the ever-changing AML/KYC regulations, contact VerifyInvestor.com to find out more about our Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) Screening Service.