Regulatory Alerts2022-06-22
Guidelines on Identification of Beneficial Information for Legal Entities and Legal Arrangements
The Bank of Botswana mandates licensed financial institutions to systematically identify and verify beneficial owners—defined as natural persons holding at least 10 percent ownership or exercising ultimate effective control—across all legal entities and arrangements. These guidelines establish standardized customer due diligence procedures, requiring institutions to obtain, record, and verify ownership data through credible independent sources while applying risk-proportionate verification measures for high-risk customers. Failure to comply with these identification and verification obligations under the Financial Intelligence Act exposes institutions to administrative fines not exceeding P1 million.
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