In today’s fast-paced world, businesses face a high risk of financial fraud due to threats of money laundering, impersonations, and terrorist financing. They must maintain security from unauthorized financial access and incorporate preventative measures to protect their services from cyberattacks and data breaches. According to a survey, 10 billion data records were exposed to data breaches in 2020. Businesses need a robust customer due diligence solution to verify the customer’s identities and ensure protection from such attacks.
What is Customer Due Diligence (CDD)?
Customer due diligence (CDD) is an identity verification process that allows businesses to detect and verify the risks related to customers. CDD services include verifying customer’s identities and monitoring their financial transactions and histories. Customer due diligence for banks is essential to AML and KYC objectives. It gathers information from customers’ personal data sources and sanction lists to verify their risk profiles to ensure a smooth customer onboarding experience.
When Should Financial Institutions Consider CDD Services?
Financial institutions should consider the use of CDD in their operations in the following situations:
Venturing a New Business
Businesses must ensure complete customer due diligence before establishing new business relationships with customers by carefully authenticating their risk profiles. Companies should implement CDD to rule out counterfeit identities and protect businesses from unauthorized access and financial losses.
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Presence of Irregular Transactions
When financial institutions face the presence of any irregular transaction, they must undertake preventive measures of customer due diligence to prevent these transactions from affecting the company’s finances. They must rule out the customers involved in such transactions, ensuring the company’s financial protection.
Suspicion of Money Laundering
Companies should implement customer due diligence if any customer is suspected of money laundering or related fraud.
Unreliable Documents
When the customer’s identity is identified as unreliable or suspicious, businesses should take advanced CDD investigation measures to authenticate their identity.
Customer Due Diligence: A Checklist
Conduct Customer Verification
The customer due diligence process starts with verifying the customer’s identity, which can efficiently be conducted through online document verification. This document verification method digitally assesses the customer’s legitimacy using advanced liveness detection methods to mitigate the risks of spoofs.
Select a Reliable Third Party
When conducting customer due diligence, businesses often work with third parties, such as auditors or lawyers. Before performing the CDD process, they need to ensure that the third parties are also authorized and reliable.
Determine the Need for Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD)
Enhanced due diligence is an advanced customer due diligence process that is used when a company deals with high-risk customers. If the business is dealing with a politically exposed person (PEP), it must consider enhanced due diligence to mitigate possible money laundering risks.
Secure Customer’s Records
Businesses must keep the customer’s financial records in their database. Any customer information gathered through the CDD process or account files must be secured in the company’s database records. If the customer’s information ever changes, they need to update the existing records.
Customer Due Diligence (CDD) Process
Customer Identification
The CDD process begins with collecting the customer’s identity, which includes their name, address, and social security numbers.
Customer’s Identity Verification
The customer’s identification documents are verified using advanced verification tools in this step. Their information is cross-checked with the information available in public records and databases.
Assessment of Customer’s Risk Profiles
The customer’s financial histories and risk profiles are evaluated to detect the risks of terrorism financing and money laundering.
Ongoing Monitoring of Transactions
The customer’s transactions are monitored and cross-referenced with their financial profiles. In this step, the customer’s account activity and transactions are monitored against any malicious activity that may lead to financial loss.
Pros Of Customer Due Diligence
Regulatory Compliance
By following CDD services, businesses comply with AML and KYC regulations. This helps businesses avoid penalties and fines. It also ensures trust and credibility, which improves the company’s reputation.
Risk Prevention
By using CDD services, businesses can efficiently identify and mitigate financial risks. It helps the businesses to implement relevant risk management strategies which prevents the access associated with high-risk customers.
Improved Data Security
Through CDD, businesses can identify malicious activities and fraudulent transactions. Businesses can take preventative actions to protect their financial assets from transactional fraud.
Intensified Business Reputation
Financial institutions implementing customer due diligence measures provide transparency and responsible business practices. This ensures security from scammers, which enhances their reputation and increases the conversion rate by attracting new customers.
Final Words
Customer due diligence is an essential measure that financial institutions must consider while operating their services. It verifies the customer’s identity and ensures protection from malicious activities. CDD protects financial institutions from fraudulent activities by using advanced verification methods. By implementing secure CDD measures, businesses can ensure a sustainable environment which boosts the company’s reputation.
