Financial Transactions Reporting (No. 6 of 2006)

Sri Lanka Consolidated Acts

[Index] [Table] [Database Search] [Name Search] [Previous] [Next] [Help]

Financial Transactions Reporting (No. 6 of 2006) - Sect 2

Identification essential to conduct of business of Institution

(1) No Institution shall open, operate or maintain an account, where the holder of such account cannot be identified, including any anonymous account or any account identified by number only, or any account which to the knowledge of the Institution is being operated in a fictitious or false name.

(2) An Institution shall, subject to any rules issued by the Financial Intelligence Unit under subsection (3), identify each customer and verify their customer identification data or information relating to a customer as is reasonably capable of identifying a customer on the basis of any official document or other reliable and independent source document verifying the identity of the customer, in cases where the Institution-

	(a) enters into a continuing business relationship, or in the absence of such a relationship, conducts any transaction, with any customer ;

	(b) detects the carrying out of an electronic funds transfer by a customer, other than any prescribed transactions ;

	(c) entertains a suspicion relating to the commission of an unlawful activity ; or

	(d) entertains doubts about the veracity or adequacy of the customer identification and verification documentation or information it had previously obtained.

(3) The Financial Intelligence Unit may issue rules prescribing-

	(a) the official or identifying document or documents, or the reliable and independent source documents, data or information or other evidence that is required for identification or verification of any particular customer or class of customers ;

	(b) the timing of the identification and verification requirements under this section ; and

	(c) the threshold for, or the circumstances in which, the provisions of this section shall apply to transactions carried on by the customers of an Institution.

(4) The terms and conditions imposed by rules issued under subsection (3) may vary in respect of different categories of Institutions, different categories of transactions or different categories of customers.

(5) The provisions of subsection (2) shall not apply-

	(a) if the transaction is part of an existing and regular business relationship with a person who has already produced satisfactory evidence of identify unless the Institution has reason to suspect that the transaction is suspicious or unusual ;

	(b) if the transaction is an occasional transaction notexceeding a prescribed sum unless the Institution has reason to suspect that the transaction is suspicious or unusual ;

	(c) if any person has been a customer of the Institution prior to the enactment of this Act, subject to a phase- in period which shall not exceed three years : Provided that by the end of such period each Institution shall apply the provisions of subsection (2) hereof to such persons subject to such regulations as may be prescribed in that behalf; and

	(d) in such other circumstances as may be prescribed by regulations made in that behalf.

(6) For the purpose of subsection (5), "occasional transactions" means any transaction, in relation to cash and electronic fund transfer, that is conducted by any person other than through an account in respect of which the person is the customer.

[Index] [Table] [Database Search] [Name Search] [Previous] [Next] [Help]