Why we ask questions
To protect you as a customer, us, and our society at large we are very serious about fighting financial crimes such as money laundering, terrorist financing, trafficking, and trading with illegal weapons. Even if we know that most of our customers have good intentions, we ask the same questions to everyone.
What is money laundering and terrorist financing?
Money laundering is the process of concealing the source of money or assets and try to pass off money or assets deriving from criminal activities as legally earned. It can involve money from drug crimes, trafficking, fraud, robbery, arms trading etcetera. Terrorist financing means someone is supporting terrorism financially. The support can be in form of grants, fundraising, accommodation or acceptance of money or assets which are intended to be used for financing terrorism. Money laundering and terrorist financing are illegal.
The Anti-Money Laundering Act
To prevent money laundering and terrorist financing there’s the Anti-Money Laundering Act. It is based on the EU Money Laundering Directive, which stipulates that financial business such as FOREX, are obliged to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. There is therefore a legislative demand on us to gather information about our customers. If we do not comply with the legislation FOREX can be sanctioned by the Financial Intelligence Unit.
Know Your Customer
To comply with the Anti-Money Laundering Act, we ask questions to understand our customer and how our products and services are used. If we do not understand we are obliged to ask about the purpose of the transaction, the source of the money and what they will be used for etcetera. Without Know Your Customer we are not allowed to offer our products and services to the customer. Any customer information and personal data that FOREX gathers are treated confidentially. Read more at forex.fi/en/gdpr.
When using our services, you are required to confirm your identity by showing us a valid passport, drivers license or other valid photo ID. You may also need to tell us if you are a public character, have a family member or is closely associated with someone of such position or other formal public position. All customers need to answer our questions before we can offer our products and services. Occasionally, we might also need to see documentation, such as a contract, a receipt, or other documentation.
More information
Find out more at Financial Supervisory Authority's website.