Mexico's Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público published on 28 August 2024 a resolution adjusting the anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism rules applicable to banks, aligning domestic requirements more closely with the international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force and reducing in-person requirements for remote customer onboarding.
ALIGNING WITH FATF STANDARDS
FATF's mutual evaluation process assesses whether countries have effectively implemented its recommendations on preventing money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation finance. The resolution itself cites FATF Recommendations 1, 10 and 15 and the FATF's 2020 Guidance on Digital Identity as the basis for the changes. For Mexican banks, the changes strengthen the risk-based approach, allow new technologies such as geolocation and biometric validation for non-face-to-face identification, set simplified identification for small and medium-sized businesses and new account-level thresholds.
DIGITAL ONBOARDING
The SHCP adjustments allow banks to onboard customers remotely, provided that appropriate digital identity verification measures are in place to satisfy the revised AML/CFT standards.