Qualified Intermediaries and “Know Your Customer” rules

At first sight, it would not be unreasonable for UK MLROs to assume that KYC compliance with the new UK anti-money laundering regime will satisfy the requirements of the US Internal Revenue Service Qualified Intermediary (QI) agreement. However, this is not necessarily the case. Andrew Clark and Helena Varney of PricewaterhouseCoopers explain.

Anti-money laundering KYC versus QI KYC

In the UK, the concept and practice of “Know Your Customer” (KYC) has grown in importance in recent years. A clutch of high-profile money laundering cases has served to highlight to the financial services industry that anything other than a rigorous approach to KYC carries significant operational, reputational and regulatory risk.