Non-compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations can result in heavy financial penalties and could expose your clients and business to potential harm, with Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) fines of up to R10 million in your personal capacity and up to R50 million as a company.

Increasingly stringent AML regulation and enforcement have heightened the need for reliable Know-Your-Customer (KYC) solutions.

KYC verification is the process of gathering information about a customer prior to establishing a business relationship or concluding a transaction, in order to verify their identity and ensure that they comply with AML regulations.

To assist in this vital process, LexisNexis has introduced Lexis® KYC – a transactional KYC verification solution with ongoing monitoring to ensure risks are detected quickly.

Rudi Kruger, General Manager for Data Services at LexisNexis South Africa, says, “Lexis KYC is an integrated and automated part of onboarding and client database processes in line with FICA’s risk-based approach. It ensures simple day-to-day customer identification checks in real time, all in one place, securely stored and ready for auditing. It currently covers South African nationals and Juristic entities, but will be extended to include foreign nationals during the course of 2020.”

Legally all companies are required to ensure they do not conduct business with entities linked to any sanctions and watchlists. Lexis KYC therefore offers enhanced due diligence with access to sanctions and watchlists including EU Consolidated List of Sanctions, HM Treasury Sanctions List, OFAC Sanctions List and UN Sanctions amongst others, as well as Political exposure reports (PEP) and Adverse Media, extracting any adverse information about the client available from public or commercial sources.

Identity verification is performed against the Department of Home Affairs, address verification is performed against the four main credit bureaus, company related detail is verified against the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), while LexisNexis® WorldCompliance™ provides Sanctions screening, Political Exposure, Official positions and Adverse Media data.

Says Kruger, “Lexis KYC can help accountable institutions to remain proactive and thorough in meeting the legislative requirements of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) when it comes to the collection of KYC/AML data.

“It will also assist with upholding compliance in conducting customer due diligence; record-keeping of client information and transaction records; developing, documenting, maintaining, and implementing a Risk Management and Compliance Programme; training employees in the FIC Act compliance obligations and meeting reporting obligations.”

Is your business an accountable institution that needs world-class AML and KYC compliance? Click here.