The Central Bank of the Bahamas released, on 23 February 2018, a consultation paper on proposed reforms to customer due diligence requirements for the opening of accounts and the provision of financial services in supervised financial institutions ('the Paper'). The Paper applies to customer due diligence requirements for natural persons, by proposing simplified customer identification requirements for access to deposit and payment services accounts, and revising the customer address verification process. The requirements will apply to banks, trust companies, co-operative credit unions, money transfer businesses, and payment service providers supervised by the Central Bank. 

The Central Bank further stated that to ensure consistency and compliance with international standards, amendments to related pieces of legislation and to the Central Bank's Guidelines for Licensees on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism ('AML/CFT') ('the Guide') have also been proposed. A proposed Annex to the Guide has been issued to this effect, which describes the acceptable methods of identifying individuals under the Financial Transactions Reporting Act, 2000 and associated regulations.

Comments can be submitted by post or via email to [email protected] until 16 March 2018.

You can read the press releases here and here, the Paper here and the Annex here.