Your Personal Information
New Zealand’s commitment to the international initiative to counter the impact that criminal activity has on people and economies within the global community has resulted in the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (“the AML/CFT law” for short).
Recent changes to the AML/CFT Act mean that from 1 July 2018 lawyers must comply with its requirements. Lawyers must do a number of things to help combat money laundering and terrorist financing, and to help Police bring the criminals who do it to justice. The AML/CFT law does this because the services law firms and other professionals offer may be attractive to those involved in criminal activity.
The law says that law firms and other professionals must assess the risk they may face from the actions of money launderers and people who finance terrorism and must identify potentially suspicious activity.
To make that assessment, lawyers must obtain and verify information from prospective and existing clients about a range of things. This part of what the AML/CFT law calls “customer due diligence”.
Customer Due Diligence Requirements
Customer due diligence requires a law firm to undertake certain background checks before providing services to clients or customers. Lawyers must take reasonable steps to make sure the information they receive from clients is correct, and so they need to ask for documents that show this.
We will need to obtain and verify certain information from you to meet these legal requirements. This information includes:
- Your full name; and
- Your date of birth; and
- Your address.
To confirm these details, documents such as your passport, drivers licence, or your birth certificate, and documents that show your address – such as a current bank statement – will be required.
If you are seeing us about company or trust business, we will need information about the company or trust including the people associated with it (such as directors and shareholders, trustees and beneficiaries).
We may also need to ask you for further information. We will need to ask you about the nature and purpose of the proposed work you are asking us to do for you. Information confirming the source of funds for a transaction may also be necessary to meet the legal requirements..
Acceptable Forms of Address Verification
All forms of addresss verification must be from within the last 3 months.
- Utility invoice
- Rates invoice
- Bank account statement
- Government or government department document
- Local Council notification / demand
- Court document
- Residential tenancy agreement
- IRD tax notice / certificate
- Companies Office records
- Insurance policy document
- Car registration notification / demand
Acceptable Forms of Identification
In general one form of ID must include a photograph. If you do not have any forms of ID that have a photograph, please contact us to discuss alternatives.
|
ONE FORM OF ID REQUIRED |
|
|
OR |
|
|
DRIVER LICENCE and any one of the following |
|
|
OR |
|
|
FULL BIRTH CERTIFICATE and any one of the following |
|
If you are presenting a copy of any identification documents to us the copy must be certified by a trusted professional which can include a JP, another solicitor, a chartered accountant, a registered teacher, member of parliament of minister of religion. They must note on the copy the following:
"I certify this to be a true copy of the original. I have seen the original. The photo represents a true likeness of........................ (your full name)".
They must sign their name, state their occupation (must be one of the above) and date the copy. You can then email the copy to us. Please note that if presenting a copy of a form of identification that has two sides (eg drivers licence and bank card) both sides must be photocopied.
All copies should be presented on one piece of paper.
If you cannot provide the required information
We will let you know what information we need, and what documents you need to show us and let us photocopy. If we are not able to obtain the required information from you, it is likely we will not be able to act for you. Because the law applies to everyone, we need to ask for the information even if you have been a client of ours for a long time.