Name
Global FinTech Guide
Country _ Name
Romania
SectionTitle
KYC requirements
Body
The know your customer or know your client (KYC) guidelines and regulations for financial services require that professionals try to verify the identity, suitability, and risks involved with maintaining a business relationship.

Legal affairs

National regulatory framework regarding AML and effective date of the regulations

Law no. 129/2019 on the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorism financing, as subsequently modified, and amended by GEO no. 111/2020, represents the primary legislation regarding anti-money laundering in Romania. The initial version of the law became effective on 21 July 2019, and the amendments became effective on 15 July 2020. Law no. 129/2019 transposed the provisions of the Directive (EU) no. 2015/849 (the “AML IV Directive”), and the Romanian Government adopted GEO no. 111/2020 to transpose the rest of the AML V Directive into Romanian legislation. Also, the National Bank of Romanian (the “NBR”) adopted NBR Regulation no. 2/2019 on the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorism financing, which serves as secondary legislation.

National regulator or relevant authority for AML controls

The National Office for Preventing and Combating Money Laundering (the “OPCSB”) is the regulator coordinating the national system of combating money laundering and terrorist financing in Romania.

Customer Due Diligence

Conduct of a typical KYC identification process

The Romanian anti-money laundering regulations provide for standard know-your-customer measures:

  • identification of the client and verifying his identity based on documents, and, if the case, on information obtained from reliable independent sources, including, where available, electronic identification means, relevant trust services as set out in Regulation (EU) no. 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market or any other secure, remote or electronic identification process regulated, recognised, approved or accepted at national level by the Authority for the Digitalisation of Romania;
  • identifying, if the case, the real beneficiary and taking reasonable measures to verify that person's identity so that the obliged entity is satisfied that it knows who the real beneficiary is, including, as regards legal persons, trusts, companies, foundations, and similar legal arrangements, taking reasonable measures to understand the ownership and control structure of the customer;
  • assessing and, as appropriate, obtaining information on the purpose and intended nature of the business relationship; and
  • constant monitoring of the business relationship, including analysing transactions, in order to ensure that the transactions being conducted are consistent with the obliged entity's knowledge of the customer, the business and risk profile, including, where necessary, the source of funds and that the documents, data or information held are up-to-date and relevant.

Possibility to meet customer due diligence requirements by relying on third parties who are obliged by law themselves to comply with AML regulations

It is possible to meet customer due diligence requirements by relying on third parties who are obliged by law themselves to comply with AML regulations and who are supervised as regards their compliance with AML regulation in a manner similar to that laid down in Law no. 129/2019.

Possibility to outsource customer due diligence by contract to other third parties who are not obliged by law to meet AML regulations and rely on these (e.g., WebID, IDnow, PostIdent)

It is legally permitted to outsource custome
r due diligence by contract to other third parties who are not obliged by law to meet AML regulations and rely on these. In such cases, although the third party would not be obliged by law to meet AML regulations, indirectly it would have to comply with the requirements of the law. The entity ultimately liable for complying with the AML requirements would still be the obliged entity (the entity which decided to outsource).

Presence of a license or registration requirement for the third party in case of outsourcing customer due diligence

Romanian law does not provide for specific terms regarding the outsourcing of customer due diligence.

Further questions

Entities that could be relied on specifically by law as a third party to comply with AML regulations (regardless of outsourcing)


Yes credit institutions
Yes financial institutions
No auditors, external accountants, and tax advisors
No notaries and other independent legal professionals
No other trust or company service providers
No estate agents
No other persons trading high-value goods
No providers of gambling services


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