The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), in cooperation with the Egyptian Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Combating Unit (EMLCU), has issued a guide to help banks identify the true beneficiaries of their customers, addressing various methods used to conceal their identities.
This initiative is part of the CBE’s commitment to implementing international standards for combating money laundering and terrorist financing, with a particular focus on accurately identifying the real beneficiaries behind financial transactions. These efforts aim to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illegal activities that often involve the concealment of true ownership.
CBE emphasized the importance of ensuring that banks’ internal policies include effective mechanisms for verifying the identity of true beneficiaries. As a minimum requirement, these policies must incorporate necessary documentation to examine the ownership structure of accounts and financial transactions.
The guide further outlines that banks’ customer identification and verification procedures must align with the due diligence requirements issued by the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Unit. Additionally, banks are expected to regularly monitor and update customer data, in compliance with regulatory controls on combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
