Guernsey FSC Chief Warns Providers Not To Shift Blame Over ID Requirements

by Philip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

02 May 2002

In an interview with the Guernsey Press and Star on Tuesday, the Director-General of the jurisdiction's Financial Services Commission delivered a strong message to financial service providers.

Peter Neville told the newspaper that, in the wake of a position paper issued jointly by the Channel Islands on 'Know Your Customer' provisions, many service providers had been implementing unecessarily bureaucratic procedures, and then blaming it on the regulator.

'In fact, the regulations are flexible,' he told the Press, adding that: 'I have written to the industry to make sure that if financial institutions are bringing in new requirements for their own benefit, they do not blame the regulations.'

According to Mr Neville, one area of contention has been the requirement to ascertain that the address given by a new customer is the correct one. He told the newspaper that the position paper had made it perfectly clear that where a provider has sent regular correspondence to a customer's address, and has a reasonable certainty that it has been received, this can be taken as sufficient proof of residence in the abode in question.

However, he said, several banks had been over-zealous, pestering long-established customers for additional information, and then blaming the Financial Services Commission.

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