Knowing the customer

Current legislation and international agreements require banks and other financial institutions to ensure that their customers’ tax residence information is up to date and accurate. Requests to provide or update information related to tax residence may occur, for example, in the following situations:

• we need information about your tax residence based on requirements related to the provision of certain products or services;
• we have reason to believe you could be a tax resident in a country other than Finland.

The reason for our questions regarding your foreign tax residence could be one or more of the following:

• you were born in the United States;
• you have a foreign home address or c/o address;
• you have changed your only phone number to a foreign number;
• you have set up a standing order to a foreign country;
• you have granted a power of attorney for banking matters to a person residing abroad.

Read more about why banks ask questions related to tax residence (vero.fi, in Finnish)

Read more about how tax residence is determined (vero.fi)

Read more about how tax residence is determined if you have ties to the United States (irs.gov)

If you have received a request from us to update your tax information, please provide the requested information by following the instructions in the message you received.

Otherwise, if you need to update your tax information (due to moving abroad, for example), you can send us the necessary information using an online form:
Update your tax information 

Alternatively, you can send the completed, signed document by scanning it as an attachment to a Mobile Bank or eBanking message or personally deliver it to a branch office.

Selvitys henkilöasiakkaan verovelvollisuudesta (pdf)
Intyg av privatkundens skattskyldighet (pdf)
Questions about tax residence (pdf)

According to the Act on Credit Institutions and the Act on Detecting and Preventing Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, the bank must identify its customers and authenticate the customers’ identity. The bank must also know to what purpose and how the customer uses the bank. The bank is obliged to monitor the customer’s business and use of the service so that the bank can identify any unusual or deviating transactions and react to them. The so-called due diligence information collected by the bank includes, in addition to the basic information, information about financial standing, tax liability and political exposure. Danske Bank collects due diligence data when the customer relationship is started and regularly after that. The bank has a statutory obligation to assist in the prevention, exposure and investigation of criminal activity and having possible crimes investigated.

Danske Bank collects due diligence data when the customer relationship is started and regularly after that. We always ask for information from our new customers. If you have become our customer before the entry into force of the current law or if your financial standing or use of banking services has changed, we may need more information than we have or we may need to update the information.

The bank asks information related to due diligence based on obligations derived from legislation and official instructions.

• Act on Credit Institutions (610/2014)
• Act on Detecting and Preventing Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (444/2017)
• Investment Services Act (747/2012)
• Act on Common Funds (48/1999)
• Act on the Book-Entry Securities System and Clearing (749/2012)
• Act on the Managers of Alternative Funds (162/2014)
• Act on Taxation Procedures (1558/18.12.1995)

The obligation to respond to the questions comes directly from the legislation related to due diligence, which obliges all providers of financial services. The purpose of the legislation related to knowing the customer is to prevent money laundering, funding of terrorism and financial crime. The underlying concepts are pan-European and international regulations on money-laundering and preventing terrorism funding. This is the reason why we need responses from all of our customers.

We offer you the possibility to provide the information the way that best suits you, either online, by telephone or by mail.

If your necessary information is not updated by the deadline, we might have to restrict your banking services until you have updated the information. This means that you will be unable to use your accounts, debit cards, bank identifiers or to sign up for new services before you have updated your due diligence information.

Politically Exposed Person (PEP) holds, or has during the past 12 months held, one of the following positions:

1. Head of State, Head of Government, Minister or Deputy Minister, State Secretary to a Minister, Member of the Åland Government or the Governor of Åland
2. Member of Parliament or of a similar executive (and legislative) bodies; Member of the Åland Parliament, Member of the European Parliament
3. Member of the governing body of a political party registered in the Party Register;
4. Member or Deputy Member of a Supreme Court, of a Constitutional Court or of other high-level judicial bodies, the decisions of which are not subject to further appeal, except in exceptional circumstances (i.e. high court judges),
5. Auditor General of the National Audit Office or a Member of a similar function
6. Member of the Board of the Central Bank
7. Ambassador, Deputy Ambassador, Chargés d'affaires
8. High-ranking officer in the armed forces;
9. Member and Deputy Member of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of a State-owned enterprises of which the State owns directly or indirectly at least 50 %
10. Director, Deputy Director, General Secretary or Member or Deputy Member of the Board or equivalent function of an international organisation, such as a not for profit / non-governmental organization, an intergovernmental organization (e.g., Bureau International des Expositions) or a supranational body (e.g., UN, IMF, World Bank)

Are you a close family member or a close associate to a person who currently holds, or has during the last 12 months held, one of the above mentioned positions?

Close family members to a PEP include:

1. Spouse or a person considered equivalent to a spouse such as civil partner or domestic partner
2. Children and their spouses, or persons considered equivalent to a spouse such as civil partners or domestic partners
3. Parents

Close associates to a (PEP) include:

1. A natural person who has a joint beneficial ownership of a legal entity or legal arrangement with a PEP
2. A natural person who has sole beneficial ownership of a legal entity or legal arrangement which is known to have been set up for the de facto benefit of a PEP (e.g., lawyers, accountants, or other nominees acting on behalf of the PEP that may be controlling a legal entity or account in a way that may not be consistent with their primary occupation or business)
3. A natural person who is able to conduct financial transactions on the PEP’s behalf (e.g. mandate holder or nominee with authorisation to conduct transactions or legal advisor accepting funds on behalf of the PEP)
4. A natural person who has a close business relationship with one or more PEPs

According to the Act on Credit Institutions and the Act on Detecting and Preventing Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, the bank must identify its customers, authenticate the customers’ identity with a document accepted as a proof of identity and store the information of that proof of identity in its archive. The bank must also know what kind of business the customer has with the bank and what kind of services the customer wishes to use. It is the bank’s obligation to monitor the customer’s business and use of the service so that the bank can identify any unusual or deviating transactions and react to them. Your information collected in order to fulfil our statutory obligation regarding due diligence is not used for any other purpose than this. The information will not be used for marketing, for example. The bank has a statutory obligation to assist in the prevention, exposure and investigation of criminal activity and having possible crimes investigated.

The customer information is stored and processed at Danske Bank in adherence to the statutory obligations, official instructions and generally accepted practice related to banking secrecy and data protection.

Pursuant to the Personal Data Act, the customer has the right to know what information is stored about the customer in the bank’s customer register. The query must be filed at a branch office or via eBanking. The person making the query must prove their identity. The bank will respond to the customer by letter.

When you become our customer, we ask you for the information required by legislation during the meeting or online registration as a customer. If you already are our customer and we ask you to update your information, you can supply the requested information and documents via eBanking or the mobile application using a secured connection, by telephone or by mail. All information you provide is handled confidentially and in accordance with legislation pertaining to collecting and storing personal data.

Remember that when we contact you, we will never request your bank identifier or credit card information by electronic mail or telephone. Neither will Danske Bank ever request your card number, validity period or PIN code on its website or in eBanking. Because of security reasons, we do not use electronic mail for sending or receiving confidential information.