Bank transfer to or from Belarus? Additional check is possible!

Do you send money transfers to relatives in Belarus or do your counterparties pay from banks in this country according to the invoices issued by you? Be prepared for such transactions to be subject to additional verification by Dutch banks.

In the light of recent events, the Republic of Belarus was included, along with countries such as Iran, North Korea and Syria, in the list of countries with a high level of risk under the Law on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism (Wet ter voorkoming van witwassen en financiering van terrorisme – WWFT).

Money transfers from / to Belarusian banks for Dutch financial institutions are now the subject of special attention, as evidenced by the letters with checks that our clients receive. In particular, after conducting transactions, customers receive inquiries from banks about suspicions from a Dutch bank, and the customer is invited to answer questions, including:

• the reason for making this payment (if it is payment for goods / services, then a more detailed description of the situation and the attachment of relevant documents - invoices, certificates, etc.);
• data on the recipient of the money (if it is a business transfer, then they may request data on the date of the beginning of the relationship and the method of establishing business relations with the counterparty, etc.).

We expect further tightening of checks by banks. In the near future, it is also possible to introduce new sanctions against the leadership of Belarus, Belarusian companies and individual citizens of the country. Therefore, we recommend temporarily limiting bank transfers to and from Belarus until the situation in the external economic environment changes.