I. Background

1. In 2013, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (the Basel Committee) reviewed two of its publications on anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism (AML/CFT). In January 2014, it published the guidelines for a Sound management of risks related to money laundering and
financing of terrorism (hereafter “the guidelines”). This document revised, updated and merged two previous publications of the Basel Committee, issued in 2001 and 2004.

2. As part of its continuous effort to keep its publications up-to-date, the Basel Committee is now proposing a revised version of the General guide to account opening and customer identification first issued in 2003. This revised version takes into account the significant enhancements to the Financial
Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations and related guidance. It builds in particular on the February 2012 version of the FATF Recommendations, as well as on two supplementary FATF publications specifically relevant for this guide: the Guidance for a risk-based approach the banking sector and the
Transparency and beneficial ownership, both issued in October 2014.

3. The Basel Committee deems it worthwhile to keep this guide as an annex to the guidelines. Most bank-customer relationships start with an account opening procedure. The customer information collected and verified at this stage is crucial to the bank in order for it to fulfil its AML/CFT obligations,
both at the inception of the customer relationship and thereafter. All banks need to establish policies and procedures for account opening and these policies and procedures have to reflect AML/CFT obligations.

4. As for the remainder of the guidelines, the content of the proposed guide is in no way intended to strengthen, weaken or otherwise modify the FATF standards. Rather, it aims to support banks in implementing the FATF standards and guidance, which requires the adoption of specific policies and procedures, in particular on account opening.

5. The proposed document expands on the discussion in Section II.3 (paragraphs 35–41 in particular) of the guidelines, entitled “Customer and beneficial owner identification, verification and risk profiling”. It should be read in conjunction with the guidelines. More specifically, the document will be
included as an annex to the guidelines, in addition to the three existing annexes that address:

• Using another bank, financial institution or third party to perform customer due diligence;
• Correspondent banking; and
• List of relevant FATF standards.