Know Your Customer
The Know Your Customer (KYC) principle is the policy whereby companies and organizations know in detail who they work with and do business with. In this way they guarantee ethical business operations. This is often also referred to as CDD (Customer Due Diligence). KYC stands for: Know Your Customer and the associated risks.
Today, it is mandatory for companies in specific industries, such as financial institutions, to conduct customer due diligence before doing business. In addition, financial institutions must report suspicious situations and customer transactions to supervisors. This prevents money laundering, fraud, tax evasion or criminal or even terrorist activities being financed via the financial institution. A good KYC policy contributes to reliability and security in trade, economy and payments.
Floriculture and fresh produce sector
More and more companies in the floriculture and fresh produce sector are receiving questions from banks and other financial institutions regarding customer relationships and specific banking transactions. Why does your customer pay through another entity? You export products to Russia, but the payment comes from Hungary, what is the reason? Who is the UBO (ultimate beneficial owner) of the entity with which you do business?' These are some KYC-related questions that many exporters or transporters have received from their bank in the past year.
Banks require compliance with the KYC principle, while many companies have never studied this and hardly know what is expected. Failure to comply with these requirements can even lead to the closing of the bank account. As a supplier of debtor information, AgroCheck has extensively studied the KYC principle to support its customers. We provide advice on KYC, but also assist clients during discussions with banks and help draw up internal procedures. In addition, AgroCheck also produces KYC reports.
KYC report
AgroCheck has developed KYC reports specifically for the floriculture and fresh produce sector. Through these reports we take over part of the work of our customers and the KYC obligation can be met. AgroCheck conducts extensive research into your customer and checks the available information of your customer for accuracy via reliable sources of information. The outcome of the KYC investigation is compressed into a simple KYC report, which is sent together with an AgroCheck debtor report. The KYC report also contains a risk profile of the customer, which shows whether the debtor meets the conditions and whether business can therefore be done safely.
Would you like to know more about the AgroCheck KYC reports? Please contact us for an appointment or more information.