Minimising risks with know your customer

Against a backdrop of heightened legislative demands, it’s increasingly important for financial institutions to know who their customers are.

Fundamentally, assessing customers’ individual needs effectively to ensure they receive accurate advice is now vital, while Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures helps to assess and monitor customer risk.

Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) reviews complete the checks required to bring customer information up to date.

They are also a legal requirement in order to comply with laws which demand that regulated organisations adopt a risk-based approach to customer due diligence and ongoing monitoring.

Why are these measures so important? Because financial institutions could face everything from fines and sanctions to reputational damage if risk isn’t assessed properly. In turn, these measures will also protect institutions from fraud and losses resulting from illegal funds and transactions.

Assess money laundering risks

More precisely, the Know Your Customer risk assessment refers to steps taken to establish customer identity, gain an understanding of the customer’s activities with a view to establishing that their funds are legitimate, and also assess any money laundering risks.

Higher than usual money laundering risks can include customers who have unnecessarily complex beneficial ownership structures, unusual transactions, or have links to what are considered higher risk countries. In such cases, establishing a financial crime risk rating is essential.

Qualified and experienced analysts

Momenta is a trusted provider of qualified and experienced analysts that support large financial institutions in crucial risk review activities.

We recognise that KYC and AML can be a sensitive subject to approach. Indeed, a financial institution’s clients can be long-standing and may be unclear as to why further information is required so far into the relationship.

A team that’s been created to handle business critical projects such as KYC and AML requires people with a proven track record in regulatory work – they need to understand the entities they are dealing with and the delicate nature of the work.

Model projects

Momenta has consistently risen to that challenge, successfully delivering contracts on time and on budget with clients viewing the results as ‘model’ projects.

We have continued to provide leading people for a range of financial projects, while our sector expertise and approachability is perfectly placed to help you find the best solution possible.