news - Reaction to article in Het Financieele Dagblad

Yesterday (6 December ’21) the Dutch financial daily newspaper (Het Financieele Dagblad) published an article on FMO’s KYC remediation process.

Like any other Dutch bank, we too are expected by our regulator, the Dutch Central Bank (DNB), to ensure that we comply with the regulations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act. To that end, a KYC remediation program was set up which geared toward completion by the end of 2021, the timeframe agreed with DNB.

FMO empowers entrepreneurs in developing and emerging economies.

It is our duty to fulfil our regulatory obligations on time; this is an extensive process that required significant effort to obtain and verify documents and conduct the necessary analysis, which, given the complex environment we operate in, is not always straightforward. Maybe even more importantly, putting a robust ‘Financial Economic Crime’-framework in place, helps to reduce the impact that failing financial practices have on sustainable development; this is incredibly important in reducing inequality.

Over Summer, and taking into account the typically reduced availability of people during this period, we temporarily paused most new transactions to ensure that we could continue to complete the KYC files on time.

With the help of our customers and our colleagues, we expect to successfully conclude the project and meet our obligations before year end. Which gives us a solid base to continue to support entrepreneurs in emerging markets.

 For more information, please see the Know Your Customer section in our annual report: FMO | Annual and interim reports