EBA demands help for Ukrainian refugees with financial services

According to the publication, financial institutions should provide refugees with an opportunity to open and use basic payment accounts, while complying with their obligations to combat money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism. Financial institutions may apply simplified customer due diligence when registering new individuals or before conducting transactions in cases where the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing is low.

In addition, when connecting clients to a payment account with basic functions, a financial institution may not require a potential client's passport to confirm his identity and rely instead on alternative documentation proving that a potential client is a refugee from Ukraine. Financial institutions may also defer the application for initial customer identification to a later date than is normally required, Interfax-Ukraine concluded.