IEIM403120 | Due Diligence: New Individual Accounts: Introduction

Due Diligence: New Individual Accounts: Introduction

New accounts are those opened on or after the date that the exchange of information regimes ‘switch on’ under the timelines for reporting [see IEIM400520 for FATCA and IEIM400580 for CRS]. New individual accounts are accounts where the Reportable Person [see IEIM403440] is an individual.

For accounts that are Financial Accounts solely due to the implementation of CRS2.0 [see IEIM400080], a New Account is an account opened on or after 1 January 2026.

Certain New Accounts of preexisting customers may be classified as Preexisting Accounts and be subject to Preexisting Account due diligence provided certain conditions are satisfied [see IEIM403125].

The due diligence procedures for New Individual accounts require that a self-certification [see IEIM403340] is obtained from the Account Holder.

If the self-certification establishes that the Account Holder is resident for tax purposes in a Reportable Jurisdiction, then the Reporting Financial Institution must treat the account as a Reportable Account [see IEIM401520].

The wider approach that requires Financial Institutions to identify the territory in which a person is tax resident irrespective of whether or not that territory is a Reportable Jurisdiction, applies to new accounts as well as pre-existing accounts. The self-certification process can be used for this purpose. This information must be maintained by the Reporting Financial Institution for a period of 5 years from the end of the period in which the account was last included in a return, or 5 years from the end of the period in which the due diligence process was last relied upon to treat the account as not being reportable [see IEIM400140].

The procedures applying for the purposes of identifying Reportable Accounts among new individual accounts are described in the following pages.