The European Banking Authority (EBA) started a public consultation on its proposed Guidelines for the use of remote customer onboarding solutions last week. These Guidelines provide competent authorities with a shared understanding of the steps finance industry operators should take to ensure secure and reliable remote customer onboarding practices in accordance with the relevant anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) regulations and the EU’s data protection framework. When implemented, these Guidelines will extend to all financial sector operators covered by the Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD). This consultation will be open until March 10, 2022.
Remote client onboarding solutions are in high demand among financial institutions. This tendency was worsened by movement limitations induced by the COVID-19 epidemic. As a result, the EBA believes it is critical for appropriate authorities and finance industry crews to understand the functions of these new remote alternatives in order to maximize the opportunities they provide while also supporting their reasonable and responsible use, as well as being aware of ML/TF risks associated with the use of such techniques and taking effective steps to minimize those threats.
These proposed Guidelines provide uniform European standards for the development and implementation of competent, risk-sensitive first consumer due diligence (CDD) systems and procedures in the setting of remote client onboarding. They outline the measures financial firms should follow when selecting remote client onboarding technologies and evaluating their sufficiency and dependability in order to properly comply with their AML/CFT responsibilities.
The EBA has also more information about the new procedures and policies about remote customer onboarding guidelines. Their websites has documents on the consultation paper of the guidelines where the discussion extends in more depth about the new recommendations.
Source: EBA
