This website uses cookies to enhance your experience. By using our website, you consent to the use of cookies. You can read more in our Privacy Policy.
Background image | Dunes
Background image | Dunes

Policies

Browse our policies below.

AML CFT Policy

AML/CFT Policy

GUIDELINES FOR ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING, COMBATING FINANCING TERRORIST AND SANCTION MEASURES

INTRODUCTION

  1. ****The purpose of these Guidelines for Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Combating Terrorist Financing (CFT) and Sanctions measures is to ensure that **Kemfinity s.r.o.** (Company) has internal guidelines to prevent the use of its business for money laundering and terrorist financing and internal guidelines for implementation of international sanctions.

These Guidelines have been adopted to ensure that the Company complies with the rules and regulations set out in:

  • the Czech Republic Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act;
  • the Czech Republic International Sanctions Act (ISA);
  • FAO general guidelines regarding measures against money laundering, terrorist financing and regarding implementation of international sanctions;
  • DIRECTIVE (EU) 2018/843 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 30 May 2018 amending Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, and amending Directives 2009/138/EC and 2013/36/EU (AMLD5).

These Guidelines are the subject of a review by the Management Board at least annually. The proposal for a review and the review of these Guidelines may be scheduled more often by the decision of the Company's Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) or the Internal Control Officer.

These Guidelines shall be accepted and approved by the resolution of the Management Board.

DEFINITIONS

The Company means legal entity with following data:

  • Company name: Kemfinity s.r.o.;
  • Registration number: 221 62 194;
  • Address: Chudenická 1059/30, Hostivař, 102 00 Praha 10;
  • Email**: [email protected];**

The Guidelines – this document including all annexes as provided above. The Guidelines include inter alia the Company's Internal control rules regarding the Guidelines and the Company's risk assessment policy regarding risk based approach for ML/TF risks.

The Money Laundering (ML) means the concealment of the origins of illicit funds through their introduction into the legal economic system and transactions that appear to be legitimate. There are three recognized stages in the money laundering process:

  • placement, which involves placing the proceeds of crime into the financial system;
  • layering, which involves converting the proceeds of crime into another form and creating complex layers of financial transactions to disguise the audit trail and the source and ownership of funds;
  • integration, which involves placing the laundered proceeds back into the economy to create the perception of legitimacy.

The Terrorist Financing (TF) means the financing and supporting of an act of terrorism and commissioning thereof as well as the financing and supporting of travel for the purpose of terrorism in the meaning of applicable legislation.

Sanctions mean an essential tool of foreign policy aimed at supporting the maintenance or restoration of peace, international security, democracy and the rule of law, following human rights and international law or achieving other objectives of the United Nations Charter or the common foreign and security Policy of the European Union. Sanctions include:

  • international sanctions which are imposed with regard to a state, territory, territorial unit, regime, organization, association, group or person by a resolution of the United Nations Security Council, a decision of the Council of the European Union or any other legislation imposing obligations on Czech Republic;
  • sanctions of the Government of the Republic of Czech Republic which is a tool of foreign policy which may be imposed in addition to the objectives specified in previous clause in order to protect the security or interests of Czech Republic.

International sanctions may ban the entry of a subject of an international sanction in the state, restrict international trade and international transactions, and impose other prohibitions or obligations.

The subject of Sanctions is any natural or legal person, entity, or body, designated in the legal act imposing or implementing Sanctions, with regard to which the Sanctions apply.

The Customer means a natural person or a legal entity which has the business relationship with the Company or a natural person or legal entity with which the Company enters into the occasional transaction.

The Beneficial Owner means a natural person who, taking advantage of their influence, makes a transaction, act, action, operation or step or exercises control in another manner over a transaction, act, action, operation or step or over another person and in whose interests or for whose benefit or on whose account a transaction or act, action, operation or step is made. In the case of a legal entity, the beneficial owner is a natural person whose direct or indirect holding, or the sum of all direct and indirect holdings in the legal person, exceeds 25 percent, including holdings in the form of shares or other forms of bearer.

MLRO means Money Laundering Reporting Officer, who is appointed to the Company as a compliance officer in the meaning of § 17 of MLTFPA.

The Employee means the Company´s employee, including persons which are involved in application of these Guidelines in the Company.

The Management Board means management board of the Company.

The Business Relationship means a relationship that is established upon conclusion of a long-term contract by the Company in economic or professional activities for the purpose of provision of a service or distribution thereof in another manner or that is not based on a long-term contract, but whereby a certain duration could be reasonably expected at the time of establishment of the contact and during which the Company repeatedly makes separate transactions in the course of economic or professional activities while providing a service.

The Occasional Transaction means the transaction performed by the Company in the course of economic or professional activities for the purpose of provision of a service or sale of goods or distribution thereof in another manner to the Customer outside the course of an established business relationship.

Virtual currency means a value represented in the digital form, which is digitally transferable, preservable or tradable and which natural persons or legal persons accept as a payment instrument, but that is not the legal tender of any country or funds for the purposes of Article 4(25) of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council on payment services in the internal market, amending Directives 2002/65/EC, 2009/110/EC and 2013/36/EU and Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010, and repealing Directive 2007/64/EC (OJ L 337, 23.12.2015, pp 35–127) or a payment transaction for the purposes of points (k) and (l) of Article 3 of the same Directive.

PEP means a natural person who performs or has performed prominent public functions and with regard to whom related risks remain.

PRINCIPLES FOR STRUCTURE AND MANAGEMENT OF THE COMPANY

The organizational structure of the Company must correspond to its size and the nature, scope, and level of complexity of its activities and services provided, including the risk appetite and related risks, and must be structured in accordance with the principle of three lines of defense. The organizational structure of the Company must correspond to the complete understanding of potential risks and their management. The reporting and subordination chains of the Company must be ensured in such a way that all employees know their place in the organizational structure and know their work duties.

The Management Board

The Management Board is the carrier of the culture of compliance with the requirements of money laundering and terrorist financing prevention, guaranteeing that the Management Board members and employees of the Company operate in an environment where they are fully aware of the requirements for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing and the obligations associated with these requirements, and the relevant risk considerations are taken into account to a suitable extent in the decision-making processes of the Company.

The Management Board members bear ultimate responsibility for the measures taken to prevent the use of the Company’s services for money laundering or terrorist financing. They provide oversight and are accountable for:

  • establishing and maintaining AML[1] processes, procedures, risk, and control processes;
  • adopting these Guidelines and other internal guidelines and instructions;
  • determining the Company’s Guidelines for AML measures;
  • appointing an MLRO and ensuring that the MLRO has the powers, resources and expertise required to perform their assignment;
  • allocating sufficient resources to ensure the effective implementation of the Guidelines and other related documents and to maintain the organization;
  • ensuring all relevant employees complete annual AML training.

The first line of defense – the Employees

The first line of defense has the function of applying the due diligence measures upon business relationship and occasional transactions and applying due diligence measures during the business relationship. First line of defense comprises the structural units and employees of the Company with whose activities risks are associated and that must identify and assess these risks, their specific features and scope and that manage these risks by way of their ordinary activities, primarily by way of application of due diligence measures. The risks arising from the activities of and provision of services by the Company belong to the first line of defense. They are the managers (owners) of these risks and responsible for them.

The employees of the Company must act with the foresight and competence expected from them and according to the requirements set for their positions, proceeding from the interests and the goals of the Company, and ensure that the country's financial system and economic space are not used for money laundering and terrorist financing. The Company takes measures to assess the suitability of the employees before they start working with the relevant training.

For the aforementioned reasons, the employees are required to:

  • adhere to all requirements outlined in the Guidelines and other related documents;
  • collect required customer information in accordance with their function and accountabilities;
  • report information, situations, activities, transactions or attempted transactions that are unusual for any type of service or customer relationship, regardless of the amount, whether or not the transaction was completed without delay to the MLRO;
  • not inform or otherwise make customers aware if the customer or any other customers are or may be the subject of a report or if a report has been or may be filed;
  • complete the appropriate AML training required for the employee’s position.

The second line of defense – Risk Management and Compliance, MLRO

The second line of defense consists of the risk management and compliance functions. These functions may also be performed by the same person or structural unit depending on the size of the Company and the nature, scope and level of complexity of their activities and provided services, incl. the risk appetite and risks arising from activities of the Company.

The objective of the compliance function is to guarantee that the Company complies with effective legislation, guidelines and other documents and to assess the possible effect of any changes in the legal or regulative environment on the activities of the Company and on the compliance framework. The task of compliance is to help the first line of defense as the owners of risk to define the places where risks manifest themselves (e.g., analysis of suspicious and unusual transactions, for which compliance employees have the required professional skills, personal qualities, etc.) and to help the first line of defense manage these risks efficiently. The second line of defense does not engage in taking risks.

Risk policy is implemented, and the risk management framework is controlled by the risk management function. The performer of the risk management function ensures that all risks are identified, assessed, measured, monitored, and managed, and informs the appropriate units of the Company about them. The performer of the risk management function for the purposes of AML primarily performs the supervision over adherence to risk appetite, supervision over risk tolerance, supervision over identification of changes in risks, performs the overview of associated risks, and performs other duties related to risk management.

The Management Board have appointed an MLRO for performing the second line of defense functions. This person is not operationally involved in the areas that the MLRO will be monitoring and verifying and is thus independent in relation to these. The MLRO is accountable for the following activities:

  • produce and when necessary, update the Company’s Guidelines;
  • monitoring and verifying on an ongoing basis that the Company is fulfilling the requirements prescribed by these Guidelines and related documents and according to external laws and regulations
  • provide the Company’s staff and Members of the Board with advice and support regarding the rules relating to money laundering and terrorist financing
  • inform and train the members of the Management Board and relevant persons about the rules relating to money laundering and terrorist financing
  • investigate and register sufficient data on received internal notifications and decide whether the activity can be justified or whether it is suspicious;
  • file the relevant reports (i.e. UARs, SARs, STRs, etc.) with the appropriate regulatory authorities in accordance with local jurisdictional requirements;
  • check and regularly assess whether the Company’s procedures and guidelines to prevent the use of the business for money laundering or terrorist financing are fit for purpose and effective;
  • identify the incidents in accordance with the Company's Guidelines and take measures regarding such incidents.

The MLRO reports to the Management Board quarterly. This report must be in writing and include at least the following items:

  • number of customers under all risk classifications
  • number of hits of persons in relation to the Sanctions lists and applied measures;
  • number of customers or customers’ representatives identified as PEPs or persons with a connection to a PEP;
  • number of internal notifications on suspicious activity or transactions;
  • number of the relevant reports (SARs, UARs, etc.) reported to FAO;
  • number and content of a request for information from the FAO within the framework of an investigation;
  • confirmation that the Company’s risk assessment for money laundering and terrorist financing is up to date;
  • confirmation that these Guidelines and other related documents are up to date;
  • confirmation that the staffing in respect of AML measures is sufficient;
  • all inadequacies (if any) identified by control function have been addressed;
  • list of obligatory trainings which have been held for the staff in respect of AML measures.

The third line of defense – Internal audit

The third line of defense is comprised by the independent and effective internal audit function. The internal audit function may be performed by one or several Employees, the Company's structural unit with the relevant functions or by the third party, which provides the relevant service to the Company.

The Employees, the Company's structural unit or third party, which performs the internal audit function must have the required competency, tools, and access to the relevant information in all structural units of the Company. The internal audit methods must comply with the size of the Company, the nature, scope, and level of complexity of the activities and provided services, incl. the risk appetite and risks arising from activities of the Company.

The decision to conduct an internal audit is made by a resolution of the Management Board. The Management Board must assess the need to conduct an internal audit at least annually.

The Company's structure chart

PRINCIPLES OF CUSTOMER DUE DILIGENCE MEASURES IMPLEMENTATION

Customer due diligence (CDD) measures are required for verifying the identity of a new or existing Customer as a well-performing risk-based ongoing monitoring of the business relationship with the Customer. The CDD measures consist of 3 levels, including the simplified and enhanced due diligence measures, as specified below.

Main Principles

The CDD measures are taken and performed to the extent necessary considering the customer’s risk profile and other circumstances in the following cases:

  • upon establishment of the business relationship and ongoing monitoring of the business relationship;
  • upon executing or mediating of occasional transaction(s) outside the business relationship where the value of the transaction(s) exceeds 15 000 euros (or an equal amount in another assets) over a period of up to one year;
  • upon verification of information gathered while applying due diligence measures or in the case of doubts as to the sufficiency or truthfulness of the documents or data gathered earlier while updating the relevant data;
  • upon suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing, regardless of any derogations, exceptions or limits provided for in these Guidelines and applicable legislation.

The Company does not establish or maintain the business relationship and not perform transaction if:

  • the Company is not able to take and perform any of required CDD measures;
  • the Company has any suspicions that the Company’s services or transaction will be used for money laundering or terrorist financing;
  • the risk level of the Customer or of the transaction does not comply with the Company's risk appetite.

In the case of receiving information in foreign languages within the framework of CDD implementation, the Company may request to demand translation of the documents to another language appliable for the Company. The use of translations should be avoided in situations when the original documents are prepared in a language appliable for the Company.

Achieving CDD is a process that starts with the CDD measures implementation. When that process is complete, the Customer assigns documented individual risk level which shall form the basis for follow-up measures, and which is followed up and updated when necessary.

The Company has applied CDD measures adequately if the Company has the inner conviction that they have complied with the obligation to apply due diligence measures. The principle of reasonability is observed in the consideration of inner conviction. This means that the Company must, upon the application of CDD measures, acquire the knowledge, understanding and assertation that they have collected enough information about the Customer, the Customer’s activities, the purpose of the business relationship and of the transactions carried out within the scope of the business relationship, the origin of the funds, etc., so that they understand the Customer and the Customer’s (business) activities, thereby taking into account the Customer’s risk level, the risk associated with the business relationship and the nature of such relationship. Such a level of assertation must make it possible to identify complicated, high-value and unusual transactions and transaction patterns that have no reasonable or obvious economic or legitimate purpose or are uncharacteristic of the specific features of the business in question.

The Services Provided

The Company's main economic activity is the virtual currency services. For this reason, the Company offers to their Customers the following transaction types:

  • providing virtual currency wallet service, which allows to the Customer open virtual currency wallet on their name (hereinafter – the Customer´s Wallet) and make transactions with this wallet: to send virtual currency deposited to this wallet to other wallet(s) and to receive virtual currency sent from another wallets;
  • providing a virtual currency exchange service, which allows to buy (by using credit card, like VISA) virtual currency from the Company and deposit it to the Customer´s Wallet;
  • providing a virtual currency exchange service, which allows to sell virtual currency from the Customer´s Wallet to the Company and send the received amount of money to the Customer's credit card or to the Customer's bank account;
  • providing virtual currency exchange service, which allows exchange virtual currency deposited at the Customer´s Wallet against other virtual currency with depositing latest to the relevant wallet of the same Customer.

The Company provides aforementioned services only for the following virtual currencies:

  • Bitcoin – BTC;
  • Ethereum – ETH;
  • Tether – USDT.
  • Gold - XAUT

The Verification of Information used for the Customer's Identification

Verification of the information for the Customer's identification means using data from a reliable and independent source to confirm that the data is true and correct, also confirming, if necessary, that the data directly related to the Customer is true and correct. This inter alia means that the purpose of verification of information is to obtain reassurance that the Customer who wants to establish the business relationship is the person they claim to be.

The face-to-face identification (personal meeting with the Customer) or identification using information technology means (using of high-confidence e-identification system) is deemed to be the reliable and independent verification of the information obtained in the course of identification.

In situations not specified in the above mentioned identification methods the reliable and independent source (must exist cumulatively) is verification of the information obtained in the course of identification:

  • which originates from two different sources;
  • where the Customer sends a photo taken of the facial image of the Customer and the identity document used for identification immediately before the data is sent and the Company makes sure that the photo was taken recently;
  • which has been issued by (identity documents) or received from a third party or a place that has no interest in or connections with the Customer or the Company, i.e. that is neutral (e.g. information obtained from the Internet is not such information, as it often originates from the Customer themselves or its reliability and independence cannot be verified);
  • the reliability and independence of which can be determined without objective obstacles and reliability and independence are also understandable to a third party not involved in the business relationship; and
  • the data included in which or obtained via which are up to date and relevant and the Company can obtain reassurance about this (and reassurance can in certain cases also be obtained on the basis of the two previous clauses).

Application of Simplified Due Diligence Measures (level 1)

Simplified due diligence (SDD) is applied where the Customer’s risk profile indicates low risk and where, in accordance with the risk assessment produced by the Company, it has been identified that in such circumstances the risk of money laundering or terrorist financing is lower than usual. Regarding the Company services provided and the Company's risk assessment, the Company will not apply SDD measures to their Customers. Thus, to all Customers at least standard due diligence measures shall be applied as specified below.

Application of Standard Due Diligence Measures (level 2)

Standard due diligence measures are applied to all Customers if CDD measures must be applied in accordance with the Guidelines. The following standard due diligence measures should be applied:

  • identification of the Customer and verification of the submitted information based on information obtained from a reliable and independent source, including using means of electronic identification and of trust services for electronic transactions;
  • identification and verification of a representative of the Customer and their right of representation;
  • identification of the beneficial owner and, for the purpose of verifying their identity, taking measures to the extent that allows the Company to make certain that it knows who the beneficial owner is, and understands the ownership and control structure of the Customer;
  • understanding of business relationships, transaction or operation and, where relevant, gathering information thereon;
  • gathering information on whether the Customer is PEP, their family member or a person known to be close associate;
  • monitoring of the business relationship.

The CDD measures specified above must be applied before establishing the business relationship. The exact instruction for application standard due diligence measures is provided in the Guidelines.

Application of Enhanced Due Diligence Measures (level 3)

In addition to CDD, the Company applies enhanced due diligence (EDD) measures in order to manage and mitigate an established risk of money laundering and terrorist financing that is higher than usual.

The Company always applies EDD measures, when:

  • the Customer's risk profile indicates high risk level;
  • upon identification of the Customer or verification of submitted information, there are doubts as to the truthfulness of the submitted data, authenticity of the documents or identification of the beneficial owner;
  • the Customer is a PEP;
  • the Customer is from a high-risk third country or their place of residence or seat or the seat of the payment service provider of the payee is in a high-risk third country;
  • the customer is from such country or territory or their place of residence or seat or the seat of the payment service provider of the payee is in a country or territory that, according to credible sources such as mutual evaluations, reports or published follow-up reports, has not established effective AML/CFT systems that are in accordance with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force, or that is considered a low tax rate territory;
  • the Customer's economic or professional activity, field or factors indicate the risk of money laundering or terrorist financing, which is higher than usual;
  • the Customer's total amount of incoming or outgoing payments related to business relationship exceeds the limits, established by the Company.

Prior to applying EDD measures, the Company's employee ensures that the business relationship or transaction has a high risk and that a high-risk rate can be attributed to such business relationship or transaction. Above all, the employee assesses prior to applying the EDD measures whether the features described above are present and applies them as independent grounds (that is, each of the factors identified allows application of EDD measures with respect to the Customer).

When applying EDD measures, the following additional and relevant due diligence measures shall be followed:

  • verification of information additionally submitted upon identification of the Customer based on additional documents, data or information originating from a credible and independent source;
  • gathering additional information on the purpose and nature of the business relationship or transaction and verifying the submitted information based on additional documents, data or information that originates from a reliable and independent source;[2]
  • gathering additional information and documents regarding the actual execution of transactions made in the business relationship in order to rule out the ostensibility of the transactions;
  • gathering additional information and documents for the purpose of identifying the source and origin of the funds used in a transaction made in the business relationship in order to rule out the ostensibility of the transactions;
  • the making of the first payment related to a transaction via an account that has been opened in the name of the Customer participating in the transaction in a credit institution registered or having its place of business in a contracting state of the European Economic Area or in a country where requirements equal to those of Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council are in force;
  • the application of due diligence measures regarding the Customer or their representative while being at the same place as the Customer or their representative;
  • gathering additional information about the customer and its beneficial owner, including identification of all owners of the Customer, incl. those whose shareholding is below 25%; 2
  • gathering information on the origin of the funds and wealth of the customer and its beneficial owner; 2,[3]
  • improving the monitoring of the business relationship by increasing the number and frequency of the applied control measures and by choosing transaction indicators or transaction patterns that are additionally verified; 2,3
  • an analysis of the Customer’s digital impression on the Internet is made (Adverse Media Search);
  • obtaining the approval of the Management Board for transactions with new and existing Customers; 2,3

The amount of EDD measures and this scope shall be determined by the employee, who is applying such measures. The employee shall notify about EDD measures applied within 2 working days after the start of applying of the EDD measures by sending relevant notification to the MLRO.

In the case of application of EDD measures, the Company monitors the business relationship more often than usual and reassesses the Customer’s risk profile no later than every six months.

CUSTOMER DUE DILIGENCE MEASURES

Identification of the Customer – natural person

The Company identifies the Customer who is a natural person and, where relevant, their representative and retains the following data on the Customer:

  • first and last name(s);
  • personal identification code;
  • date of birth;
  • citizenship;
  • the place of residence or seat;
  • economic or professional activity.

The following valid identity documents may be used as the basis for the identification of a natural person:

  • an identity card;
  • a residence permit card;
  • an alien’s passport;
  • a driving permit issued in a foreign country if the document includes user’s name, photograph or facial image, signature or image of a signature and date of birth or personal identification code;
  • a travel document issued in a foreign country (passport).

During the verification of the data obtained during the identification of the Customer and representative from a credible and independent source, the first credible and independent sources is always:

  • an identity document specified above or a colored and legible copy/image of this document.

The following information obtained may be the second reliable and independent source:

  • the Customer´s photo (selfie) with identity document;
  • the utility bill (e. g. invoice, issued and paid once a month from utilities, including electric, natural gas, water, waste, etc.)
  • information for checking the data[4] directly associated with the person (e. g. place of work, residence or study).

The Customer who is natural person can´t use representative in the course of business relationship or occasional transaction with the Company.

Identification of the Customer – legal entity

The Company identifies the Customer which is a legal entity and their representative and retains the following data on the Customer:

  • business name or name (with the legal form);
  • registry code or registration number and date of registration;
  • name of the director(s) or names of member(s) of the management board or member(s) of another equivalent body, and their authorities in representing the Customer;
  • location of the Customer, whereby the theory of the country of establishment must be proceeded from;
  • place of business;
  • the details of the telecommunications.

The following documents issued by a competent authority or body not earlier than six months before their use may be implied for identification of the Customer:

  • registry card of the relevant register; or
  • registration certificate of the relevant register; or
  • a document equivalent with an aforementioned documents or relevant documents of establishment of the Customer.

The Company verifies the correctness of the Customer's data specified above, using information originating from a credible and independent source for that purpose. Where the Company has access to the commercial register, register of non-profit associations and foundations or the data of the relevant registers of a foreign country, the submission of the documents specified about does not need to be demanded from the Customer.

The identity of legal entity and the right of legal entity's representation can be verified on the basis of a document specified above, which has been authenticated by a notary or certified by a notary or officially, or on the basis of other information originating from a credible and independent source, including means of electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions, thereby using at least two different sources for verification of data in such an event.

During the verification of the data from a credible and independent source obtained during the identification of the legal entity, the source considered credible and independent when the Company:

  • sees the original of the document specified above;
  • sees a copy of the document specified above that has been authenticated by a notary, certified by a notary or officially certified; or
  • has access to the data in the commercial register, register of non-profit associations and foundations or the relevant registers of foreign countries via a computer network.

Two different sources during the identification of a legal entity means that the data medium, place or measure of obtaining information must be different (i.e. it cannot be the same data medium).

The representative of the legal entity shall be identified as the Customer, who is a natural person in accordance with these Guidelines. The Company must also identify and verify the nature and scope of the right of representation. The name, date of issue and name of issuer of the document that serves as a basis for the right of representation must be ascertained and retained, except in case, when the right of representation was verified using information originating from the relevant register (e. g. the commercial register, register of non-profit associations and foundations or the relevant register of a foreign country).

The Company must observe the conditions of the right of representation granted to the legal entity's representatives and provide services only within the scope of the right of representation.

The identification of the Customer's beneficial owner

The Company must identify the beneficial owner of the Customer and take measures to verify the identity of the beneficial owner to the extent that allows the Company to make sure that they know who the beneficial owner is.

The Company shall request from the Customer information to the Customer's beneficial owner (e. g. providing the Customer with an opportunity to specify their beneficial owner in KYC questionnaire).

The Company doesn´t establish the business relationship, if the Customer, who is a natural person has beneficial owner who is not the same person as the Customer.

The beneficial owner of a legal entity is identified in stages where the obliged entity proceeds to each subsequent stage if the beneficial owner of the legal entity cannot be determined in the case of the previous stage. The stages are as follows:

  • is it possible to identify, in respect of the Customer that is a legal entity or a person participating in the transaction, the natural person or persons who actually ultimately control the legal entity or exercise influence or control over it in any other manner, irrespective of the size of the shares, voting rights or ownership rights or its direct or indirect nature;
  • whether the Customer that is a legal entity or the person participating in the transaction has a natural person or persons who own or control the legal entity via direct[5] or indirect[6] Family connections and contractual connections must also be taken into account here;
  • who is the natural person in senior management[7], who must be defined as the beneficial owner, as a result of execution of the previous two stages have not made it possible for the obliged entity to identify the beneficial owner.

If the documents used for the legal entity´s identification or the other submitted documents do not indicate directly who the beneficial owner of the legal entity is, the relevant data (incl. data about being a member of a group and the ownership and management structure of the group) are registered on the basis of the statement of the representative of the legal entity or the document written by hand by the representative of the legal entity.

The Company shall apply reasonable measures to verify the accuracy of the information established on the basis of statements or a handwritten document (e.g. by making inquiries in the relevant registers), requiring the submission of the legal entity's annual report or other relevant document. If the Company has doubts about the accuracy or completeness of the relevant information, the Company shall verify the information provided from publicly available sources and, if necessary, request additional information from the Customer.

Where the Company establishes the business relationship with the Customer whose information on beneficial owners must, in accordance with the statutes of a Member State of the European Union, be submitted to the state or be registered there, the Company shall obtain a relevant registration certificate or registry extract upon identification of the Customer´s beneficial owner.

The beneficial owner does not have to be identified in the case of the Customer listed on a regulated market that is subject to disclosure requirements consistent with European Union law or subject to equivalent international standards which ensure adequate transparency of ownership information.

[1] For the purpose of simplifying these Guidelines, relation to "AML" includes also prevention of terrorism financing and implementation of Sanctions.

[2] this measure shall be always applied, where the Company comes in contact with the high-risk third country via the Customer or transaction.

[3] this measure shall be always applied, where the Customer is a PEP

[4] For example, the fact that the data collected in the course of identification are true and correct can be proven by a confirmation in a format that can be reproduced in writing received from a reliable and independent source, which states that the person lives (e. g. consumes utilities there, i.e. proves that the person lives at that place), studies or works (profession or area of activity) at the place they declared, etc.

[5] direct ownership is a manner of exercising control whereby the natural person owns a 25 percent shareholding plus one share or an ownership right of over 25 percent in the company

[6] indirect ownership is a manner of exercising control whereby a 25 percent shareholding plus one share or an ownership right of over 25 percent in the company is owned by a company that is controlled by a natural person or several companies that are controlled by the same natural person.

[7] a member of senior management is a person who makes the strategic decisions that fundamentally affect business activities and/or practices and/or the company general (business) trends or in its absence 15.8.2. carries out everyday or regular management functions of the company within the scope of executive power (e.g. chief executive officer (CEO), chief financial officer (CFO), director or president, etc.).

Contact us