Privacy & Data Protection

AML/CFT Policy & Procedures

1.     Anti-money Laundering Compliance Statement

The Berkshire Exchange (‘Berkshire’, ‘TBE’, ‘the company’) is committed to full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations regarding anti-money laundering procedures. The Berkshire Exchange has adopted and will enforce the provisions set forth in AML/CFT regulations in order to prevent and detect money laundering, terrorist financing and other illegal activities.

If The Berkshire Exchange and/or premises are inadvertently used for money laundering or other illegal activities, The Berkshire Exchange can be subject to potential serious civil and/or criminal penalties. Therefore, it is imperative that every member, officer, director and employee (each, an "Employee") is familiar with and complies with the policy and procedures set forth in this document.

This Compliance Statement is designed to assist all clients in adhering to The Berkshire Exchange's policy and procedures, which, if followed diligently, are designed to protect themselves, The Berkshire Exchange, its employees, its facilities and its activities from money laundering or other illegal activities.

To ensure that The Berkshire Exchange's policies and procedures are adhered to, The Berkshire Exchange shall designate an Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Officer (the "Compliance Officer"). The Compliance Officer is responsible for establishing and conducting Employee training program to ensure that all appropriate Employees are aware of the applicable AML/CFT Laws and Regulations, The Berkshire Exchange's AML/CFT Policies and Procedures and their responsibilities with respect to these policies.

2.     Objectives of AML / CFT

·       Comply with all AML/CFT Rules and Regulations of the jurisdictions it operates in;

·       Appointment of a Compliance Officer who shall ensure adherence to The Berkshire Exchange's AML/CFT Policy and Procedures;

·       Requires all employees to prevent, detect and report to the Compliance Officer all potential instances in which The Berkshire       Exchange or its employees, its facilities or its activities have been or are about to be used for money laundering, terrorist financing and other illegal activities;

·       Requires all Employees to attend anti-money laundering training sessions, so that all such employees are aware of their responsibilities under The Berkshire Exchange's policies and procedures; and as affected by current developments with respect to anti-money laundering events.

3.     What is Money Laundering?

Money laundering involves the placement of illegally obtained money into legitimate financial systems so that monetary proceeds derived from criminal activities are transformed into funds with apparently legal source.

Money laundering has many destructive consequences both for society as a whole and for those entities involved in money laundering activities. With respect to society as a whole, money laundering may provide resources for drug dealers, terrorists and other criminals to operate and expand their criminal activities.

With respect to entities, any involvement whether it be to instigate, assist, conceal, or ignore the source, nature, location, ownership or control of money laundering activities, can lead to both civil and criminal proceedings against the individual and the entity involved.

Additionally, the adverse effects, including the adverse publicity to the Firm associated with involvement in money laundering events cannot be emphasized enough.

Money laundering transactions may include:

·       Advising a potential or existing client on how to structure a transaction to avoid reporting and/or record keeping requirements;

·       Engaging in any activity while wilfully or recklessly disregarding the source of the funds or the nature of the Client transaction;

·       Engaging in any activity designed to hide the nature, location, source, ownership or control of any proceeds of criminal activity;

·       Dealing in funds to facilitate criminal activity; or

·       Dealing in proceeds of criminal activity.

Money laundering can involve the proceeds of drug dealing, terrorist activities, arms dealings, mail fraud, bank fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud or securities fraud, among other activities.

4.     What is Terrorist Financing?

Terrorist financing refers to the processing of funds to sponsors involved in or those who facilitate terrorist activity. Terrorist individuals/ groups/ organization derive income from a variety of sources, often combining both lawful and unlawful funding, and where the agents involved do not always know the illegitimate end of that income. The forms of such financing can be grouped into two types:

Financial Support - In the form of donations, community solicitation and other fundraising initiatives. Financial support may come from states and large organizations, or from individuals.

Revenue Generating Activities - Income is often derived from criminal activities such as kidnapping, extortion, smuggling or fraud. Income may also be derived from legitimate economic activities such as diamond trading or real estate investment.

5.     Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Officer

The Berkshire Exchange has appointed a dedicated Compliance Officer to oversight the compliance function who will be reporting to the Board of Directors of The Berkshire Exchange. Any employee shall immediately notify the Compliance Officer if he/she suspects or has any reason to suspect that any potentially suspicious activity has occurred or will occur if a transaction is completed. Employees are encouraged to seek the assistance of the compliance Officer with any questions or concerns they may have with respect to The Berkshire Exchange’s AML/EFT Policy and Procedures.

Responsibilities of the Compliance Officer include the following:

·       Review of account opening forms and sign off from Compliance perspective

·       Coordination and monitoring of The Berkshire Exchange’s day-to-day compliance with applicable Anti-Money Laundering Laws and regulations and the Berkshire Exchange’s own AML/CFT Policy and Procedures;

·       Conducting employee training programs for appropriate personnel related to The Berkshire Exchange’s AML/CFT Policy and  procedures and maintaining records evidencing such training;

·       Receiving and reviewing any reports of suspicious activities from Employees;

·       Determining whether any suspicious activity as reported by an Employee warrants reporting to senior management of the Firm;

·       Coordination of enhanced due diligence procedures regarding Clients; and responding to both internal and external inquiries regarding The Berkshire Exchange’s AML/CFT policy and procedures.

The AML/CFT compliance officer for The Berkshire Exchange is Patrick French and is contactable via email: 

patrick@theberkshireexchange.co.uk

6.     Anti-Money Laundering Employee Training Program

As part of The Berkshire exchanges anti-money laundering program, all employees are expected to be fully aware of the AML/CFT policy and procedures.Each Employee is required to read and comply with this compliance policy and procedures, address concerns to the Compliance Officer and sign the acknowledgment form confirming that he/she has read and understands The Berkshire Exchange’s AML/CFT policy and procedures.

To ensure the continued adherence to The Berkshire Exchange’s AML/CFT policy and procedures, all Employees are required to reconfirm their awareness of the contents of this document by signing the acknowledgement form annually, or more frequently, as required by the Compliance Officer. 

The Berkshire Exchange is committed to the highest standards of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) and requires the management, and employees to follow the named standards.

Money laundering – the process of converting funds, received from illegal activities (such as fraud, corruption, terrorism, etc.), into other funds or investments that look legitimate to hide or distort the real source of funds.

The process of money laundering can be divided into three sequential stages:

Placement. At this stage, funds are converted into financial instruments, such as checks, bank accounts, and money transfers, or can be used for purchasing high-value goods that can be resold. They can also be physically deposited into banks and non-bank institutions (e.g., currency exchangers). To avoid suspicion by the company, the launderer may as well make several deposits instead of depositing the whole sum at once, this form of placement is called smurfing.

Layering. Funds are transferred or moved to other accounts and other financial instruments. It is performed to disguise the origin and disrupt the indication of the entity that made the multiple financial transactions. Moving funds around and changing in their form makes it complicated to trace the money being laundered.

Integration. Funds get back into circulation as legitimate to purchase goods and services.

7.     AML Policy

The Berkshire Exchange, like most companies providing services on the financial market, adheres to the principles of Anti-Money Laundering and actively prevents any actions that aim or facilitate the process of legalizing of illegally gained funds. AML policy means preventing the use of the company's services by criminals, with the aim of money laundering, terrorist financing or other criminal activity.

To prevent money laundering, TBE neither accepts nor pays cash under any circumstances. The company reserves the right to suspend any client's operation, which can be regarded as illegal or, may be related to money laundering in the opinion of the staff.

8.     Company procedures

The Berkshire Exchange will make sure that it is dealing with a real person or legal entity. The company also performs all the required measures in accordance with applicable law and regulations, issued by monetary authorities. The AML policy is being fulfilled within TBE by means of the following:

Know your customer (KYC) policy and due diligence

Monitoring of client activity

Record keeping

9.     Know Your Customer and Due Diligence

Because of the company's commitment to the AML and KYC policies, each client of the company has to finish a verification procedure. Before Vantage starts any cooperation with the client, the company ensures that satisfactory evidence is produced or such other measures that will produce satisfactory evidence of the identity of any customer or counterparty are taken. The company as well applies heightened scrutiny to clients, who are residents of other countries, identified by credible sources as countries, having inadequate AML standards or that may represent a high risk for crime and corruption and to beneficial owners who resides in and whose funds are sourced from named countries.

10.  Individual clients

During the process of registration, each client provides personal information, specifically: full name; date of birth; country of origin; complete residential address, including phone number and city code. A client sends the following documents (in case the documents are written in non-Latin characters: to avoid any delays in the verification process, it is necessary to provide a notarized translation of the document in English) because of the requirements of KYC and to confirm the indicated information:

• Current valid passport (showing the first page of the local or international passport, where the photo and the signature are clearly visible); or
• Driving licence which bears a photograph; or
• National identity card (showing both front and back pages);
• Documents proving current permanent address (such as utility bills, bank statements, etc.) containing the client’s full name and place of residence. These documents should not be older than 3 months from the date of filing.

11.  Corporate clients

In case the applicant company is listed on a recognised or approved stock exchange or when there is independent evidence to show that the applicant is a wholly owned subsidiary or a subsidiary under the control of such a company, no further steps to verify identity will normally be required. In case the company is unquoted and none of the principal directors or shareholders already has an account with TBE, the official provides the following documents because of the requirements of KYC:

• Certificate of Incorporation or any national equivalent;
• Memorandum and Articles of Association and statutory statement or any national equivalent;
• Certificate of good standing or other proof of registered address of the company;
• Resolution of the board of directors to open an account and confer authority on those who will operate it;
• Copies of powers of attorney or other authorities given by the directors in relation to the company;
• Proof of identity of directors in case he/she will deal with The Berkshire Exchange on behalf of the Customer (according to the Individual identity verification rules described above);
• Proof of identity of the beneficial owner(s) and/or the person(s) on whose instructions the signatories on the account are empowered to act (according to the Individual identity verification rules described above).

This procedure is performed to establish the identity of the client and to help The Berkshire Exchange know/understand the clients and their financial dealings to be able to provide the best services of online trading.

12.  Access Method

You acknowledge you are fully responsible for all activities that occur through the use of any password, user ID or other access methods (each, an “Access Method“) you may be granted as a registered user of THE BERKSHIRE EXCHANGE, whether or not such use is authorised by you. 

You agree not to access or attempt to access any password-protected portions of the Site without an authorised Access Method or through any means other than by utilizing your authorised Access Method on the appropriate web page or web tools. 

It is your sole responsibility to monitor and control use of these Access Methods for all purposes. You accept all responsibility for the security of your Access Method, and utilization of the Site via the Access Methods. You agree that you shall be solely liable for all authorised and unauthorised access using the Access Methods.

 Do not disclose your Access Methods to anyone not authorised to act on your behalf. TBE cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to comply with this Section.

13.  Monitoring of client activity

In addition to gathering information from the clients, The Berkshire Exchange continues to monitor the activity of every client to identify and prevent any suspicious transactions. A suspicious transaction is known as a transaction that is inconsistent with the client's legitimate business or the usual client's transaction history known from client activity monitoring. The company has implemented the system of monitoring the named transactions (both automatic and, if needed, manual) to prevent using the company's services by criminals.

14.  Record keeping

Records must be kept of all transaction data and data obtained for the purpose of identification, as well as of all documents related to money laundering topics (e.g. files on suspicious activity reports, documentation of AML account monitoring, etc.). Those records are kept for a minimum of 7 years after the account is closed.

15.  Deposit and withdrawal requirements

All the clients' operations to deposit and withdraw funds have the following requirements:

Due to AML / CTF laws, The Berkshire Exchange cannot deposit funds to third parties. All money withdrawn from your account must go to a bank account in the same name as your Berkshire trading account.

Complaints & Escalation Policy

If you have a complaint about any aspect of our service, then we would like to hear from you. You can contact us by post, telephone or email at operations@theberkshireexchange.co.uk.  Please address all correspondence to the Complaints Manager. Our complaints department will be best placed to receive your complaint and work with you to resolve it.

Complaints Procedure

The Berkshire Exchange Limited has established an internal complaints procedure to ensure your complaint is dealt with efficiently and by the correct person. To help us investigate and resolve the problem as quickly as possible, please make sure you give us the following information:

• Your name, address and client reference number
• A clear description of your concern or complaint
• Details of what you would like us to do to put it right
• Copies of any relevant documents, such as letters
• A daytime telephone number where we can contact you

We will try to resolve your complaint immediately and with minimum inconvenience to you. The first step is for us to be really clear on what the problem is and to identify with you what we can do to put it right. The more information you can give us the better.

Sometimes we will not be able to solve the problem for you immediately. If we are unable to resolve your complaint by the following day and if we have not already contacted you to agree with our proposal for resolving it, we will:

• Send an acknowledgement of your complaint in writing within 5 business days.
• Confirm who will handle your complaint, and how you can contact them.

If your complaint is particularly complex in nature, we will keep you informed of the progress we are making as we continue our investigations.In any event, we will endeavour to resolve your complaint and provide you with a full response within 15 business days. These may be extended up to 30 calendar days in exceptional circumstances. If we are unable to provide you with a final response within 15 business days we will provide you:

• An explanation as to why we are unable to provide you with a final response and with an indication as to when you will get one.
• If you are an eligible client, a notification of your rights to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

In our final response we will include:

• A summary of your complaint
• A summary of the outcome of our investigation
• Whether we acknowledge there has been any fault on our side and whether the complaint will be upheld
• Details of any offer to settle the complaint and how long this offer will remain open
• If you are an eligible client, a notification of your right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

If you are an eligible client, a notification of your right to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Financial Ombudsman Service

The UK Parliament established the Financial Ombudsman Service as the official independent expert in settling complaints between consumers and businesses providing financial services.

Escalation Process

If you have lodged a complaint and are not entirely satisfied with the solution by The Berkshire Exchange, you can obtain a copy of the Financial Ombudsman Service explanatory leaflet from us or contact the Financial Ombudsman Service directly at:

Financial Ombudsman Service
Exchange Tower
London
E14 9SR

Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Phone: 0800 023 4567 or 0300 123 9123

If your complaint is in relation to Data Protection, and we are unable to provide you with a final response within one calendar month we will write to you with:

• An explanation as to why we are unable to provide you with a final response and with an indication as to when you will get one.
• If you are an eligible client, a notification of your right to refer the matter to a Data Supervisory Authority.

For the purpose of our processing the Lead Supervisory Authority is:

Lead Supervisory Authority
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, United Kingdom

Website: https://ico.org.uk
Email: casework@ico.org.uk
Phone: +44 (0) 303 123 1113

Last Modified 04/01/21