Know your customer – why does the bank ask?

As a bank, we are obliged to verify your identity from an official and undamaged identity document. This concerns both existing and new customers. Due to this obligation, we want to offer our customers an easy way to update their customer details and verify their identity. 

As of the autumn of 2019, you will be able to verify your identity in Nordea Mobile using an easy and fully automated self-service tool if you do not wish to do this at a Nordea branch. 

The tool asks you to take a picture of your identity document. You are also asked to follow the instructions to take a selfie video which will be compared to your identity document. 

Our automatic self-service tool will be gradually introduced to Nordea Mobile users whose customer details require updating. 

Do you ask all of your customers these questions?

Yes. We already ask these questions from all our customers when establishing their customer relationships. The information is also checked and updated during the customer relationship, so we don't ask the questions from everybody at the same time. The information paves the way for a confidential banking relationship, and knowing customers is an important part of the statutory obligations that the bank must fulfill in order to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

You and our other customers can help us combat illegal activities by answering these questions.

Why do you ask these questions?

All Finnish banks have a statutory obligation to know their customers and thus participate in bearing corporate social responsibility.

We at Nordea work actively in order to safeguard your economic interests. Banks are subject to the reporting obligation and thus play a key role in the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing. Prevention of money laundering is an important part of the combat against such organised crime as human trafficking, drug trade and terrorism because the benefits gained from crime can be used to finance new illegal activities. Nordea is trusted for its corporate social responsibility. We wish to keep this trust.

We take our responsibility seriously and are obliged to know how our customers use the bank’s products and services. Ultimately, this is a question of statutory requirements, i.e. we are obliged to obtain this information on our customers. 

What do you use this information for?

We use this information for getting to know our customers and to understand their activities and use of our services.  Thus we can safeguard their economic interests and detect unusual use of our services and possibly illegal activity. 

We wish to protect our customers and the entire society. We know that most of our customers are honest. This information is updated in our customer systems so that all information about you will be correct and up to date. The Know Your Customer information and other personal information may be used for preventing and investigating money laundering and terrorist financing, and for raising an official investigation into the terrorist financing and the crime with which the property or the criminal benefit related to money laundering or terrorist financing has been obtained. 

Do I have to answer these questions?

Yes, all customers must answer these questions. As a bank and a reliable social player, Nordea is obliged to ask these questions from all its customers.

If you answer the questions on the Internet, it is important that you save all the pages of the form. This prevents the information from getting lost even if you did not answer all the questions during your first login.

Reminders of filling in the form will be sent to you unless you have not completed it.

What happens if I do not answer the questions?

If you do not answer all the questions, ultimately we might not be permitted to provide you with a full range of our services, or give you the support that you need.

If you answer the questions on the Internet, it is important that you save all the pages of the form. That way your information doesn't disappear if you do not complete all the questions during the first log-in. 

Reminders to complete the form will be sent out/posted if you have not completed the form.

Will you be able to terminate my relationship with Nordea if I don’t answer these questions?

We need your answers to these questions, so we attempt to contact you unless you have answered them. You may have many kinds of reasons for not answering them and therefore we want to contact you.

If we cannot reach you, it may ultimately lead to a situation in which we no longer can provide you with our services or give you the advice you need. In accordance with the law, the bank may not establish a customer relationship, execute a business measure, realise a payment transaction through a payment account or maintain a business relationship if it cannot implement the statutory measures for knowing its customers.

Do all banks ask questions like this?

Yes, the law requires all banks to ask their customers information related to identifying and knowing them. However, banks may do it differently and at different times. Still, the obligations of knowing customers and the instructions and orders by the authorities are the same for all banks.

Banks may decide themselves how they acquire this information.

Read more www.finanssivalvonta.fiOpens new window

Can I answer at a later stage?

You can answer the questions later, but we hope you would answer them within a couple of weeks. If you have received a letter with a personal code, it is valid for 20 days.

Do you share this information with other banks?

No. The responses will only be used to make sure that the information we have about you is correct and up-to-date, and in connection with statutory reporting.

The information you provide will be kept confidential in accordance with the bank's duty of confidentiality. We also comply with the Personal Data Act.

Can I change my answers?

If you need to correct or update your previous answers, please contact your Nordea branch office or you can call 0200 3000.

How often will you ask me questions like this?

We have to ask these questions at regular intervals because the legislation requires all Finnish banks to update their customer information.

Nordea bears its corporate social responsibility by maintaining sufficient and up-to-date information in order to know its customers.

Why do you ask about my state of residence for tax purposes?

CRS (Common Reporting Standard) is an international standard decided by OECD (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) that covers automated exchange of information about financial accounts. More than 40 countries have signed this standard, including Finland and all the EU countries.

The standard means that financial institutions are obligated to find out which country or countries are the customer's state of residence for tax purposes.

Why do you ask about my country of birth and citizenships?

The information on the country of birth and nationality is necessary for knowing our customers.

How do I know that this letter/homepage is really from Nordea – and not a fraud/phishing attempt?

If you received a letter with a link and a personal code, make sure that you type the address to the web page yourself.

When you are logged into the netbank or have typed the address to the web page, you will see a padlock in the address field. This shows that you are on a secure page.

Before you complete the form you can check that your name and national identity number are filled in automatically.

If you are uncertain whether Nordea has contacted you, please contact us 0200 3000.

I feel that some of the questions are intruding my privacy, are you really allowed to ask me these questions?

It is our responsibility to have this knowledge about our customers. To maintain confidence in Nordea as a responsible corporate citizen, it is crucial that we attend to this responsibility.

We are obliged by the authorities to collect this information about our customers, and when you answer these questions you help us maintain our responsibility and fight illegal activities.

We know that almost all customers are honest, but in order to find the few that are not, we need to ask everybody questions without exception. It is important to know, that we do not ask these questions based on any suspicions against you.

I’ve been a customer for more than 10/20/30 years, why do I need to answer these questions now? 

I know my banking advisor personally, why do you need this information?

The legislation requires all Finnish banks to update their customer information regularly. Above all, we want to secure your financial interests and protect you from any illegal activity. Nordea bears its corporate social responsibility by maintaining sufficient and up-to-date information in order to know its customers.

We ask these questions from all new customers and our current customers regardless of how long they have been our customers.

Will you contact me if the answers to these questions deviate from what I actually do?

Our most important goal is to take care of your economic interests. Nordea bears its corporate social responsibility by maintaining sufficient and up-to-date information in order to know its customers.

Depending on your answers, we may need to collect additional information. In the event of discrepancies, you may be contacted to confirm that the provided information is correct

You already asked these same questions last year. Why are you asking them again?

We apologise if you have had to answer similar questions recently. Nevertheless, please answer the questions this time, too. If you know all the answers, it will only take you a few minutes.

I’m a customer in other banks as well, and they don’t do it this way. How can you say that all banks ask these questions?

The legislation requires all Finnish banks to update their customer information regularly. We ask these questions to make sure that your customer information is correct and up-to-date.

Each bank decides on how and when it contacts its customers and the questions may slightly differ from each other. Still, the statutory obligations are the same for all banks.

Read more www.finanssivalvonta.fiOpens new window

Why am I getting a letter when my wife got a prompt in the netbank and my father was interviewed in a branch office?

The inquiry is personal and it can be delivered to customers via different channels.