IECA Houston Rodeo Educational Seminar Presentation

Panel Discussion of KYC Compliance and Best Practices for Banks, Businesses, and Professionals (including Lawyers, Notaries and Accountants!)

The IECA’s Know Your Customer (KYC) Working Group will provide a panel discussion of the US Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the US PATRIOT Act, related IRS Regulations, and other US laws intended to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and fraud. Financial institutions have long been aware of their Customer Identification Program (CIP) requirements under the BSA, which was enacted in 1970 to support anti-money laundering (AML) policies.  The BSA is administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Mandatory CIP data collection to identify and verify the identity of customers, and submission of cash transaction reports (CTRs) (for cash transactions in excess of $10,000) and suspicious transaction reports (STRs), are all designed to assist US law enforcement officials in their efforts to enforce AML laws. With the passage of the US PATRIOT Act in 2001, that purpose was expanded to include combating terrorist financing.

We will explore: (i) the range of banks, businesses, and professionals, including lawyers, accountants and other professionals, who are subject to varying degrees of KYC identity verification, data collection, and reporting obligations, (ii) the use of third-party vendors to perform various aspects of KYC due diligence, (iii) appropriate responses to “red flags” raised by such KYC due diligence, (iv) forms of KYC Questionnaires for use in onboarding new customers, and (v) the potential criminal penalties and financial consequences arising from failure to comply with KYC requirements. We will also discuss the increased risk of data-theft liability of banks, businesses, and professionals under cyber-security laws associated with protection from cyber-hacking theft all the customer identification data collected in furtherance of KYC compliance requirements. Our ultimate objective is drawing useful conclusions about best practices for KYC processes.

Please join our IECA panelists, Victor Ureta of Acclaim Energy, Deborah Low of Haynes and Boone LLP, Tony Ross of Woodforest National Bank, and Phil Lookadoo of Haynes and Boone LLP, for an interesting and timely presentation on best practices in KYC!