Frequently asked questions about banking
Yes. Banks have a statutory obligation to know and identify their customers. Among other things, this means that the bank must verify the customer’s identity in a reliable manner.
The bank must also be able to demonstrate to the authorities how each customer has been identified, the document or information on which the identification was based and who identified the customer. In other words, banks have the right to take a copy of the ID used for identifying the customer and to store the copy to fulfil their notification obligation to authorities such as the Financial Supervisory Authority.
Yes. Banks are obligated to know their customers, including whether they are politically influential or the family members or close business partners of a politically influential person. This obligation is based on the Act on the Prevention of Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism (444/2017).
A person is politically influential if he or she holds a significant public office in Finland or abroad, or has held such a position in the past year. The family members of such persons consist of their spouses, children and their spouses, and parents.