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KYC requirements
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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

In Chile, AML is regulated primarily by a) Law No. 19,913, which creates the Financial Analysis Unit (UAF) and amends various provisions in money and other asset laundering, that became effective in 2003; and b) the corresponding regulations issued by UAF.

In addition, there are other laws and regulations that also deal with the matter, such as:
  • Law No. 20,393, which sets forth the Criminal Responsibility of Legal Entities, which became effective in 2009.
  • Law No. 20,730, which regulates the Lobby and the Management that Represents Particular Interests to Authorities and Officers, which became effective in 2014.

National regulator or relevant authority for AML controls

The relevant authority for AML controls in Chile is the UAF, which is a decentralised public service dependent of the Ministry of Finance. The purpose of the UAF is to prevent and impede the use of the financial system and other sectors of Chilean economic activity to commit crimes of money laundering and terrorism financing.

Customer Due Diligence

Conduct of a typical KYC identification process

A KYC is mandatory for certain entities described in article 3 of Law No. 19,913 . As per such provision, the following individuals and entities must inform about suspicious operations that they learn of in the exercise of their activities: banks and financial institutions; factoring companies; financial leasing companies; securitisation companies; general fund administrators and companies that manage private investment funds; foreign currency exchange offices and other entities that are authorised to receive foreign currency; issuers or operators of credit cards, payment cards with provision of funds or any other system similar to the aforementioned means of payment; companies that transfer and transport securities and money; stock exchanges and commodities exchanges, as well as any other exchange that in the future is subject to the supervision of the Commission for the Financial Market (CMF); stock brokers; securities brokers; insurance companies; mutual fund administrators; operators of futures and options markets; management companies and users of free zones; casinos, gambling halls and racetracks; holders of gambling operation permits in larger merchant ships, with capacity to stay on board, and which have among their functions the transportation of passengers for tourist purposes; customs agents; auction and hammer houses; property brokers and real estate management companies; notaries; conservatives; pension fund administrators; professional sports organisations, governed by Law No. 20,019; savings and credit cooperatives; representatives of foreign banks; and securities deposit companies governed by Law No. 18,876 (hereinafter the Informing Entities).

Notwithstanding the foregoing, this duty to inform shall also be applicable to any person who carries or transports currency in cash or negotiable instruments to the bearer, from and to Chile, for an amount exceeding USD 10,000 or its equivalent in other currencies. In these cases, the information shall be collected directly by the National Customs Service and forwarded by the latter to the UAF.

Given the duty of the Informing Entities to identify and know their customers in order to be able to recognise suspicious or unusual behaviour on their part, they must request certain information from their customers and use that information to prevent and d

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