9. Customer Acceptance Policies and Procedures
Customer acceptance policies and procedures include all factors relevant to a customer as the person performing a financial transaction through remittance centers; procedures to verify customer’s identity, address and business, and the amount of income and sources of funds; determining the purpose of establishing the relationship (remittances membership) between the remittance center and its customers, while not dealing with unknown or fictitious names and taking into account the full compliance with regulations and instructions issued by SAMA, AML/CFT-related instructions, ‘Know Your Customer (KYC)’ requirements, and Customer Due Diligence (CDD) procedures for customers of various types and categories; and setting classifications and prerequisites to establish relationships with customers.
9.1: Membership
Customers of remittance centers fill in their personal details in the individual membership opening form to benefit from the services provided by the center. The center then issues a membership card to the customer that contains his/her personal number which is linked to an automated system and on which his/her personal details, photo ID, and signature proving the presence of the person himself/herself and the validity of details filled in the form and the details of the beneficiary of the transfer at the center authorized by SAMA to practice this activity. The customer must present their membership number when carrying out any financial transaction in addition to the original ID card to ensure that they are the original party in the relationship and that the ID card is valid.
Membership is subject to regulatory procedures in terms of updating details and freezing, in addition to setting permissible financial limits according to customers' status, log in frequency and so on.
9.2: Membership Opening Conditions
All requirements set forth in the Rules Governing the Opening of Bank Accounts and General Operational Guidelines shall be adhered to, and membership must meet the prerequisites for verification requirements for identities and real users (the beneficiary) of such memberships, including the following:
1) The membership must be opened by the customer themselves, requiring their presence in person while taking into account cases in which the customer is required to visit to establish the relationship as provided for in the Rules Governing the Opening of Bank Accounts and General Operational Guidelines in Saudi Arabia.
2) Fill in all details and information related to ‘KYC’ principle in the Membership Opening Form and confirm its validity by signing it.
3) Provide an original copy of valid national IDs for citizens or resident ID for expatriates, to be included within the customer’s file.
4) Remittance centers shall be responsible for matching and verifying the validity of details with the original documents submitted by the customer; and placing the stamp and date on each document and storing them in the automated system.
5) It is necessary to have an identifier for women who cover their faces.
6) Minors (under the age of 18 Hijri years) will not be eligible for membership except with the approval of the guardian or curator (not an identifier).
7) Legal persons are not permitted to open remittance memberships. They are required to open a bank account through which they carry out all financial transactions.
8) An expatriate who has a temporary residence permit in the passport -granted thereto by the Kingdom's embassies under a work visa only in preparation for obtaining a resident ID - can be granted membership based on such permit (for a period of 3 months), to be frozen following expiry of that period until a valid resident ID card is issued.
9) Follow the instructions of persons with whom dealing is prohibited in accordance with the decisions of the Security Council and the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority.
10) Determine the full information of the beneficiaries of the remittance outside the Kingdom, such as the name and ID number, if available, or an account number and address.
11) Membership may not be shared by more than one person.
12) Membership may not be treated as a checking account or used for purposes inconsistent with the primary purpose for which it was opened.
13) An item that contains confirmation from customers that they are the real beneficiaries from the membership and have a direct relationship with the beneficiaries of the remittance shall be added in the membership opening form.
14) Determine the amounts and numbers of expected monthly/yearly remittances (outbound and inbound), and evaluate whether they are adequately commensurate with customers’ monthly incomes.
9.3: Updating Details
Remittance centers shall update customers’ details regarding their membership in the following cases:
1) Upon the expiry of the identity validity period or after the lapse of a maximum of 5 years, whichever is earlier.
2) When customers’ personal identification documents and details, or the nature of their financial operations, are suspected.
3) When their financial transactions do not conform with the information provided to the remittance center or when the pattern and behavior of the customer’s financial operations change.
It is also possible to benefit from the service (Yaqeen) as an the additional option for verifying the identity of customers electronically according to SAMA circular No. (371000018071) dated 12/2/1437H.
9.4: General Instructions Regarding Customers
1) Remittance centers shall identify the customer through valid identification documents in all cases in which it deals with customers.
2) The nature of customers' business and activities shall be consistent with the volume, purpose and category of the executed financial transactions, in addition to the importance of identifying the real beneficiaries of such transactions and taking necessary measures to verify customers.
3) The validity period of the resident ID/visa/temporary resident permit shall be taken into consideration when dealing with expatriates, pilgrims, Umrah performers and visitors.
4) Secure information from official certifications such as the national ID, resident ID or passport and obtain a copy of such, as well as ensuring their conformity to the original ones carried by the customer and employee upon creating the membership.
5) Reject any dealings with fictitious, digital or anonymous names.
6) Membership numbers shall be linked with names and ID numbers, and shall be considered an automatic reference to the transactions carried out when creating the relationship (creating a membership number for the customer).
7) The requirements of KYC, AML/CFT rules issued by SAMA and other relevant regulations and instructions shall be applied.
8) The relationship with the customer shall be terminated when the remittance center is unable to verify the sources of transactions or doubts the validity or adequacy of the customer’s identification details, or when the customer continues to use the remittance membership for purposes other than that for which the membership was created.
9) The customer's name and the national/resident ID number shall be entered in both Arabic and English, and shall be considered mandatory fields for opening the membership.
10) The opening of membership shall be approved by the manager of the remittance center after verifying all the customer information and their conformity with the volume and nature of his/her activities and transactions.
11) The necessary approvals shall be applied when opening remittance memberships for high-risk customers or for which enhanced heightened due diligence is required based on the FATF recommendations and AML/CFT rules.
9.5: ‘Know Your Customer’ Principle
The purpose of applying ‘KYC’ principle is to enable remittance centers to form a clearer picture by ascertaining the true identity of each customer with an appropriate degree of confidence and identifying the types of business and transactions that the customer is likely to carry out with a remittance center. Moreover, for achieving this purpose, remittance centers procedures shall include the following measures:
1) Identify and verify the identity of all permanent and temporary customers on a continuous basis.
2) Identify the identity of the real beneficiaries for all transactions carried out by customers at the level that achieves complete understanding and knowledge thereof.
3) The risk-based approach shall be applied to assess the risks associated with various types of customers and take appropriate measures to enhance the requirements for identifying and verifying the identity of customers or real beneficiaries of their transactions.
4) Take the measures that would update the requirements for identifying and verifying the identity of all customers on a continuous basis.
5) Track changes in the identity of customers and take necessary action regarding their impact on the requirements of control and supervision.
6) Make available identification records of customers/real beneficiaries to the competent officials responsible for compliance with the AML/CFT standards and relevant concerned officials.
7) Verify the identity of customers and real beneficiaries through reliable and independent sources.
9.6: Customer Due Diligence (CDD) Measures
The application of due diligence procedures entails that remittance centers monitor, and make sure that they understand, the financial transactions of customers and their real beneficiaries; and that they verify all business activities in which they engage, as well as information related to membership creation while satisfying themselves that such information is reliable and clear. The instructions require that remittance centers apply the essential due diligence procedures to all permanent and temporary customers, including real beneficiaries, and that these procedures be continuous and consistent with the degree of risks associated with the business and transactions carried out by customers as follows:
1) Track the activities of financial transactions and their consistency with the information provided by customers.
2) Due diligence procedures are required upon creating and strengthening the relationship when carrying out sporadic transactions whose value, individually or collectively, exceeds the declared limits. They are also required in the event of cases suspected to involve ML/TF, regardless of exemptions or transaction amount limits, or in case of doubts about the accuracy or adequacy of the information previously obtained when identifying customers.
3) Check whether any person is acting on behalf of the customer and ensuring the legality of such practice.
4) Determine the persons who hold ownership or control over the customer.
5) Due diligence procedures shall be strengthened for high-risk customers possibly due to the volume or types of anticipated or actual transactions, including those that involve jurisdictions classified as high risk or those mentioned on the FATF website as being jurisdictions that do not adequately implement the recommendations related to AML/CFT, or transactions that are defined by law or applicable instructions as being a high-risk source, such as correspondent banking relationships and politically exposed persons.
6) Simple due diligence procedures and measures shall not be acceptable in case of suspicion of ML/TF transactions.
7) Ability to mitigate the due diligence requirements on relationships that have been classified into low risk categories according to the risk assessment carried out by the remittance center.
8) To not permit the termination or absolute restriction of relationships with entire categories of customers aiming to avoid risk management or due to limited financial returns (profits) and without considering other risk mitigation measures for individual customers within a specific sector and dealing with risks on a case-by-case basis.