The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion reiterated that all commercial institutions including jewellers in the Sultanate of Oman should ensure that customers show their personal identity while purchasing gold, precious metals and stones.
A circular issued by the ministry stated, “We would like to point out to all commercial institutions and companies the necessity of ensuring that the personal identity of customers is shown when making any transaction for buying or selling gold, jewellery, precious metals and valuable stones”.
The move, said the ministry, comes as part of its supervisory role of applying the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Law, which aims to confirm that commercial institutions maintain customer due diligence.
When checked with jewellers in the capital city, they said both sales and purchase are made only after verifying the identity of the customers in accordance with the guidelines from the ministry.
“All transactions, mainly high-net sales and purchases, are made only after verifying the personal identity of the customers,” said floor manager of a leading jewellery shop in Ruwi.
They also confirmed that officials collect details of the purchases on regular intervals from the shops.
The National Centre for Financial Information is the authorised entity entrusted with the task of analysing suspicious activity reports which are received from various entities and disseminate the information to the Royal Oman Police (ROP) and the public prosecution for further action, in accordance with its requirements.
According to experts, most of the anti-money laundering violations are due to the inadequate Know Your Customer (KYC) follow ups.
“KYC helps manage risks and helps to understand customer behaviours. When the entity is looking into the customer identity, it is important to look into the real beneficial owner of a particular transaction,” says Jose Chacko, Partner-Forensic Technology Services, Crowe Oman.
As per Financial Action Task Force, an inter-governmental policy making body that sets anti money laundering standards and counter terrorist financing measures, entities should perform customer due diligence throughout the relations with the customer.
“Even though method and the periodicity may differ as per jurisdictions, customer due diligence procedures must be initiated along with a customer beginning a business relation with the entity,” points out Jose Chacko.
“First thing is to determine a customer’s identity. This may be finding the customer’s name, any family name and identity of the customer from individually verifiable documents, together with the beneficial owner,” he adds.
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