Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Terrorist Financing and Know Your Customer Policy

Last updated: 11 October 2021

The purposes of the EXMO’s Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Terrorist Financing and Know Your Customer Policy (hereinafter — the “AML/CTF and KYC Policy“) is to identify, prevent and mitigate possible risks of EXMO being involved in illegal activity.

To confirm with international and local regulations, EXMO has implemented effective internal procedures to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, drug and human trafficking, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, corruption and bribery and to react correspondingly in case of any form of suspicious activity from its Users.

Money Laundering can be defined as: ‘the conversion or transfer of property, knowing that such property is derived from criminal activity, or from an act of participation in such activity, for the purposes of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of the property, or assisting any person who is involved in the commission of such activity to evade the legal consequences of his action.’

Terrorist Financing can be defined as: ‘the wilful provision or collection, by any means, directly or indirectly, of funds with the intention that the funds should be used, or in the knowledge that they are to be used, in order to carry out terrorist acts.’

To combat anti-money laundering (AML) around the globe, a growing number of increasingly onerous laws and regulations have been enacted. While AML laws and regulations vary by country and region, they often share similarities, including the need to create policies and procedures, as well as invest in technology, in an effort to combat all forms of financial crime.

How is AML regulated in different jurisdictions?

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body that sets standards to help countries develop and update their laws to combat money laundering and terrorism financing, is responsible for global AML guidance. The FATF includes 39 members, 37 member jurisdictions as well as the European Commission and the Gulf Cooperation Council. Consequently, many of the laws and regulations around the world include commonalities as promoted by the FATF to its members.

Regulations in the U.S.

In the U.S., the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and the U.S. PATRIOT Act form the backbone of the country’s efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Together, these acts place a number of requirements on financial institutions, such as the need to screen customers against government databases, report suspicious activity and conduct the appropriate level of due diligence on customers.

Regulations in Europe

European regulation of AML is guided by a series of legislative directives. The EU released the Sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, (6AMLD), which was in force on 02 December 2018, and required member states to transpose to national law by 03 December 2020.

In the UK firms must adhere to the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLRs), and be aware of the guidance set down by the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG) which provides guidelines within the United Kingdom on how firms should conduct Due Diligence on their customers.

Other legislation in relation to AML/CTF are:

• 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive ((EU) 2018/843)
• The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002;
• Terrorism Act 2000 and 2001;
• Counter-Terrorism Act 2008;
• HM Treasury Sanction Notices;
• FCA Handbook.

AML/CFT and KYC Policy includes:

• Verification procedure;
• Role of the Chief Compliance Officer;
• Transactions Monitoring;
• Risk Assessment:
• Country of Residence.

Verification procedures

To help fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities, the Law requires all financial institutions to obtain, verify and record information that identifies each person or entity who opens an Account. We are required by Law to ask you to provide your name, address, date of birth and other information about you, your organisation or persons related to your organisation that will allow us to identify you before we approve your Account. We also may ask you to provide certain identifying documents, such as your driver’s license or passport or your organisation’s articles of incorporation and may obtain credit and other consumer reports to assist us in verifying your identity and in determining whether you satisfy our account criteria. Unless you provide the requested information and documentation, we may not be able to open your Account.

By applying for an EXMO Account, you agree to provide the information and documentation requested by EXMO and consent to EXMO’s acquisition of credit and other consumer reports about you for the purposes described above.

The EXMO’s Customer due diligence (“CDD“) procedure requires the Users to provide EXMO with reliable, independent source documents to identify them and confirm their residential address. Such documents may include, for example, a national ID card, an international passport, a bank statement, a utility bill. For such purposes, EXMO reserves the right to collect the Users’ identification information for the purposes of compliance with its AML/CFT and KYC Policy.

EXMO will take steps to confirm the authenticity of documents and information provided by Users. EXMO will also look to verify identification information through secondary sources, and EXMO reserves the right to investigate further the cases of Users where EXMO is not satisfied with the documentation submitted.

EXMO reserves the right to verify the identity of the User on an ongoing basis, especially when its identification information has been changed or its activities appear suspicious (unusual for a particular User). In addition, EXMO reserves the right to request from the Users current documents, even if they have been authenticated in the past.

Information about the user’s identification will be collected, stored, shared and protected strictly in accordance with the EXMO’s Privacy Policy and relevant rules. The User agrees that if any information provided in the Account application changes, ceases to be true or becomes materially misleading (including, but not limited to, the ownership of the Account) then the User will notify EXMO of the changes.

After confirming the identity of the user, EXMO may refuse to provide Services to the User if EXMO’s Services are suspected to be used for the purposes of conducting illegal activities.

EXMO has a regulatory requirement to verify the sources of Fiat Money and/or Cryptocurrency to know that the sources of the Funds that Users use to trade with are legitimate. EXMO will require evidence of the source of Funds; this may include bank statements for Fiat Money or a video showing wallet transaction details for Cryptocurrency.

Users who intend to use payment cards for the purpose of consuming Services must undergo a card check in accordance with the instructions available on the EXMO’s Site.

EXMO uses independent third-party companies for the following:

• check Users against Politically Exposed Person’s (PEP) and Sanctions Lists as well as checks for Adverse Media.
• assess User’s cryptocurrency wallets with regards to AML investigation and compliance.

EXMO reserves the right to terminate or refuse Accounts on the basis of information attained by the third-party companies this includes Users connected to “high-risk” wallets.

Chief Compliance Officer

The Chief Compliance Officer is the person, duly authorised by EXMO, whose duty is to ensure the effective implementation and enforcement of the AML/CFT and KYC Policy. It is the Chief Compliance Officer’s responsibility to supervise all aspects of EXMO’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing procedures, in particular:

• collection of Users’ identification information;
• establishing and updating internal policies and procedures for the completion, review, submission and retention of all reports and records required under the applicable laws and regulations;
• monitoring transactions and investigating any significant deviations from normal activity;
• implementing a records management system for appropriate storage and retrieval of documents, files, forms and logs, updating risk assessment regularly, providing law enforcement with information as required under the applicable laws and regulations.

The Chief Compliance Officer is the contact point for EXMO with law enforcement agencies for the purposes of prevention of money laundering, terrorist financing and other illegal activities.

Transaction Monitoring

EXMO Users must complete the EXMO’s identity verification process (who you are) before trading. After verification is completed the User consents to transaction Monitoring, EXMO analyses User’s transactional patterns (what they do).

EXMO relies on data analysis as a risk-assessment and suspicious activity detection tools. These tools perform a variety of compliance-related tasks, including capturing data, filtering, record-keeping, investigation management and reporting.

In connection with the AML/CFT and KYC Policy, EXMO will:

• monitor all transactions. EXMO reserves the right to ensure that transactions of suspicious nature are reported to the proper law enforcement;
• request the User to provide any additional information and documents in case of suspicious transactions;
• suspend or terminate User’s Account when EXMO has a reasonable suspicion that such User is engaged in illegal activity.

However, the above list is not exhaustive and the Chief Compliance Officer will monitor Users’ transactions on a regular basis in order to define whether such transactions are to be reported and treated as suspicious.

Risk Assessment

In order to meet its obligations regarding Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorist Financing (CTF) EXMO completes an annual AML Risk Assessment. The aim of the AML Risk Assessment is to prevent criminals using EXMO to launder money by highlighting risks and assessing controls EXMO has put in place. A risk-based approach is taken to identify Users and monitor how they use our Services.

The Chief Compliance Officer is responsible for managing financial crime risks and making improvements in financial crime risk management through identifying the general and specific money laundering risks that EXMO is facing, determining how these risks are mitigated by the EXMO’s AML controls and establishing the residual risk that remains for EXMO.

Country of Residence

EXMO’s AML/CTF Policy sets out EXMO’s risk appetite with regard to client’s onboarding. EXMO does not accept clients who are residents in countries deemed to be above risk appetite. These include:

EXMO also does not accept any clients from disputed or unrecognized territories as they do not produce recognized official ID documents. These include:

• Crimea (Ukraine region)
• Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR)
• Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR)
• Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Republic of Artsakh)
• Palestine
• Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic
• Republic of Abkhazia
• Republic of China (Taiwan)
• Republic of Kosovo
• Republic of Somaliland
• Republic of South Ossetia
• Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
• Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus