Now, citizenship is mandatory to open an account, even if you have a national identity card or its number from January
Accounts can be opened in banks and financial institutions from January 1 on the basis of national identity cards. Earlier, citizenship was mandatory to open a bank account. On Thursday, the National Bank issued a circular to banks and financial institutions, infrastructure development banks and microfinance institutions to open accounts based on the national identity card or its number.
"Banks and financial institutions will have to establish the details of the national identity card or the number of the national identity card based on the access to the details in the electronic record of the national identity card from January 1, 2081, and make arrangements to open the account," said the instructions of the National Bank.
Rashtra Bank Spokesperson Ramu Paudel said that even though it seems that the national identity card is mandatory for opening bank accounts from January, there is no intention to open bank accounts only on that basis. "Currently, not all citizens have a national identity card, so it is not mandatory to open a bank account," he said In the case of government payments, banks and financial institutions should open accounts based on the details provided by the relevant government agencies.
There is also an instruction in the circular to fill the customer identification and verification (KYC) according to this instruction before withdrawing the amount from such account. Banks and financial institutions should open accounts based on the details provided by the relevant government agencies in cases where the government has to pay government payments including social security. Before withdrawing money from such account, Rashtra Bank has instructed that the customer must be identified and verified in accordance with this instruction.
"To ensure that the details of the mobile number provided by the customer do not belong to the customer, the organization will have to adopt the necessary identification method based on the inherent risk," said the National Bank. The directive also stipulates that the list of individuals, groups or organizations provided by various means should be established regularly to ensure that there is no transaction with any person, group or organization associated with it.
'If the account, locker or any other funds of the listed person, group or organization or the person associated with it is with the organization, it should be immediately suspended and informed to the Money Laundering Prevention Supervision Division of this bank within 3 days in the format according to schedule 10 of the regulation and a copy of the same to the Financial Information Unit. It will have to be provided,' said the National Bank.
There is also a new arrangement regarding the classification of high-ranking persons by banks and financial institutions, according to which high-ranking persons who hold positions, high-ranking persons who are not holding positions, foreign high-ranking persons from neighboring or nearby countries, other foreign high-ranking persons and high-ranking persons of international organizations etc. should be included in the said classification.
'The institution must use the information received from the client in accordance with the prescribed standards to determine whether its client is a family member or a person with a close relationship with a high-ranking person.' '
It is an old instruction of Rashtra Bank that banks and financial institutions should set up a separate department/unit with the chief executive officer. Now the National Bank has said that it will appoint a separate implementation officer for that department. In this way, while appointing an enforcement officer, there is a provision in the directive to make sure that there is no family member or close relative of the official of the relevant regulatory body or high management employee.
"When an organization sends a report on suspicious transactions, if the details of the immediate family or close relatives of the implementing officer of such an organization are to be sent, arrangements should be made to send the report from an officer other than him," said the National Bank.
