Regulate EDD in Banking Operations for Risk Management Against Terror Funding
Regulating Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) in banking operations is crucial for effective risk management, particularly in combating terror funding. In 2020, the most critical due diligence factors for successful mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions included evaluating the assumptions behind the target’s predictions and scrutinizing the quality of underlying earnings and operating cash flow. Interestingly, only 3% of respondents in Romania considered sustainability due diligence as relevant for a successful M&A deal. This highlights the significant emphasis placed on financial integrity and accurate forecasting, which shows the importance of EDD protocols in banking in identifying and preventing potential risks associated with terror funding.
What is EDD Banking?
EDD banking is the essential component of KYC regulatory compliance, which majorly involves the authentication of potential customers and computing the risk level of money laundering of each customer they pose before giving them the acquired services. EDD banking terms include authenticating the user’s identities; for that reason, additional credentials are required to mitigate the monetary risks involved completely. According to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the following mandatories are included which are given below:
- Acquiring more details from different strong and independent sources.
- Searching more, like checking if there’s any adverse information about the person or company.
- Get a special report to learn more about whether the person or company might be involved in any type of illegal activity.
- Confirming the origin of funds or assets in the business partnership.
- Requesting more details from the customer regarding the purpose and intended scope of the business arrangement.
How to Conduct Enhanced Due Diligence? Explore the Complete Working Framework
The conduction of enhanced due diligence in the banking and financial institutions involves some major steps of execution, which are given below:
Implement a Risk-Based Strategy
EDD banking means employing a risk-oriented approach to customers and enhancing due diligence in financial institutions. It acquires additional credentials from high-risk customers and does not require treating each customer in the same manner. It is executed in such a way that each client is assigned a certain risk rating and then executes defined verification checks.
Retrieve Supplementary Details
EDD in banking also requires additional credentials from the customers, which can directly be sourced or otherwise; third-party databases also assist in giving these tasks. It is not acquired in all scenarios; if customers are identified as high-risk customers or politically exposed persons (PEPs), financial institutions will demand it directly.
Establish UBO of Funds
EDD in banking makes sure to have complete credentials of the customer’s wealth and analyze the financial and non-financial resources. These financial figures should match the customer’s previous transaction history or the origin of the money. The illegal identities would be reported to the relevant authorities for taking some serious actions.
Monitoring Transaction Activity
Enhanced due diligence of the customers includes some major histories that include the following mandates relevant to the user’s financial history:
- Stakeholders
- Transaction turnaround times
- The intent and type of all transactions
Conduct Adverse Media Screening
Previous track records and clients’ reputed history tell more about their behavior towards illegalities. High-risk profile customers would be more involved in committing potential financial crimes such as money laundering and terror funding.
Perform an On-Site Inspection
Conducting an on-site inspection through EDD in banking ensures the physical validity of the potential customers. Verifying the current residence or the location represents the customer’s authenticity, adding an extra layer of security and enhancing the overall validity factor.
Formulate a Monitoring Strategy
After executing all the monitoring strategies, a measured decision should be taken into account. If the risk level is deemed manageable, an ongoing monitoring strategy can be developed to oversee transactions and activities. This strategy should involve reviewing transactions against the provided data to identify patterns that may indicate suspicious activity, even if individual transactions appear normal.
Develop a Strategic Report
The successful execution of EDD in banking should entail the proper strategic report and include a timetable that highlights all the monitoring activities. All the copies of credentials should be included in the EDD report for safe utilization in future scenarios.
The Bottom Line
Enhanced due diligence kyc in banking has streamlined the overall working operations of banks and financial institutions. As the regulations of EDD are implemented, potential money laundering and terror funding scams have reduced in recent years. However, to maintain the integrity of finance departments and even potential businesses, mandates to comply with regulatory measures should be encouraged.
