Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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182. To ask the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the fact that when asked to act as a third party authority on behalf of constituents regarding banking issues, some banks requested a copy of this Deputy's driver licence or passport (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48389/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I, as Minister for Finance, have no statutory role in relation to the matter referred to in the question and I was not aware of this issue.

Lending institutions in Ireland are independent commercial entities and operational matters are a matter for the Board and Management of each bank.  It is up to the bank in question what identification they ask for when dealing with a third party or dealing with a Deputy on behalf of a constituent.

On the issue more generally, in the area of financial services legislation, section 33 of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010, as amended (“the Act”), sets out obligations in relation to the identification and verification of customers and beneficial owners. Section 33(2) sets out the following measures that shall be applied by designated persons (which include banks and credit unions):

“(a) identifying the customer, and verifying the customer's identity on the basis of documents (whether or not in electronic form), or information, that the designated person has reasonable grounds to believe can be relied upon to confirm the identity of the customer, including -

(i) documents from a government source (whether or not a State government source), or (ii) any prescribed class of documents, or any prescribed combination of classes of documents;”.

It is important to note that the Act is not prescriptive as to what documentation and information a designated person must obtain, or the methods by which such documentation and information should be gathered, in order to comply with its customer due diligence obligations. A designated person may apply the measures that it deems appropriate in accordance with the designated person’s own risk based approach; however, the designated person must ensure that the measures applied adhere to the legislative requirements under the Act. The Act also requires designated persons to keep such documents or information used for the purpose of identification and verification up to date.