Due diligence

Offshore banks are working in accordance with the Know Your Customer policies. Bank will take reasonable measures to establish the identity of its clients and beneficial owners and will only accept clients when this process has been completed. The customer applying for the bank account should have a valid passport and should be ready to visit the bank in person or provide authenticated documents (legalized or with Apostille). For Due Diligence purposes the offshore banks require the information on anticipated account activity and source of funds (description of the origin and the means of transfer for money that is accepted for the account opening). For bigger transactions the banks will require to provide documents confirming particular transaction (contracts, invoices etc.). In some cases the references or other sources to corroborate reputation information can also be requested.

All this information is kept within bank in accordance with banking law and strict confidentiality requirements and can be disclosed only in limited situations, after written request by appropriate authority (in most cases ? by central prosecution office of the country of bank?s registration). These exceptional cases are related to serious criminal proceedings like drug or weapons trafficking, terrorism and similar. Criminal proceedings are instituted against bankers disclosing customers' information in extralegal cases, which can lead to imprisonment.