We believe all our customers are as concerned about following the law as we are. At the same time, we understand that our customer knowledge form can raise questions. Which is why we’ve summarized some of the most common questions about customer knowledge and the answers to them here.
Customer knowledge form
Have you received a letter or text message from us asking you to fill out a customer knowledge form? Great! As a credit market company, we’re legally obligated to have good and continuously updated knowledge of all our customers, so-called customer knowledge. Please use the button below to access our customer knowledge form. Thank you for taking the time to respond!
Fill out the customer knowledge formThe terms customer knowledge or Know Your Customer (KYC) both stand for the same thing and aim at the process of getting to know customers to prevent and avoid criminal activities such as money laundering and terrorist financing. Telia Finance does this, among other things, by asking you to identify yourself and answer our customer knowledge questions. We must ask the questions to all our customers without exception, new and old and regardless of size. This is an important part of maintaining financial sustainability and creates security for both parties.
According to the anti-money laundering regulations, Telia Finance is obligated to have good knowledge of its customers and may not enter into agreements or perform individual transactions for a customer if we do not have sufficient customer knowledge. Should a business relationship have already been initiated, it must be terminated if it is not possible to achieve sufficient customer knowledge. We know that the majority of our customers are honest, but in order to prevent and avoid criminal activity, all our customers need to answer the questions. That does not mean that we suspect you of anything.
No. According to the anti-money laundering regulations, all banks and financial institutions must collect this information.
Yes. According to law we must ask customer knowledge questions to all our customers, new and old and large and small.
No. Telia Finance is obligated to always have correct and up to date customer knowledge. Therefore, all customers need to answer our questions continuously in order to keep the information updated. Even if nothing has changed since you became our customer, we may ask you to confirm this by answering our questions again.
Telia Finance is a credit market company and a wholly owned subsidiary within the Telia Company Group. Since we invoice some of the services and deliveries that Telia provides, we are obligated by law to obtain sufficient customer knowledge about you. That is why you need to answer our questions.
If the customer is a company or other legal entity, the questions must be answered by an authorized representative of the legal entity, such as the CEO or another person authorized to sign the form. As stated in the form, we also need to receive a copy of a valid ID document for the representative. If the representative is not an authorized signatory of the customer, a certified copy of the power of attorney must also be submitted.
Yes. The questions must be answered by you personally or by someone who has a valid power of attorney to answer the questions on your behalf. In that case, we also need to obtain a valid written power of attorney.
We are obligated to obtain information about our customers' financial transactions. If we do not understand the purpose of a transaction or where the money comes from, our employees are obligated to ask you additional questions. You also need to be prepared to present receipts, invoices or other documents that support your explanation.
Telia Finance is not only allowed to request this information, we are required by law to do so. Since the anti-money laundering regulations aim to prevent and avoid crime, threats to public security, etc. it also has priority over other regulations, such as the Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
A beneficial owner is a natural person who, alone or together with an immediate family member (spouse, registered partner or any partner considered by national law as equivalent to the spouse, children and children's spouse, registered partner or any partner considered by national law as equivalent to the spouse and parents), directly or indirectly (through a company), ultimately owns or controls the customer, or a natural person for whose benefit someone else is trading. A beneficial owner is thus the person or persons who ultimately own or control the customer. A beneficial owner can also be the person or persons who benefit from someone else acting for them through the customer. A natural person shall be presumed to exercise the ultimate control over the customer if he or she alone or together with an immediate family member:
If the beneficial owner cannot be determined, Telia Finance instead needs to obtain information about the identity of the chairman of the board, the managing director or the corresponding executive of the customer, a so-called alternative beneficial owner.
If the customer has a beneficial owner, that person's identity must also be checked. We must also check whether the beneficial owner is to be considered a PEP.
PEP (person in a politically exposed position) is a person who is holding or during the last 18 months has held prominent public function(s) in a state, in a state-owned company or in an international organization. Through its position and influence, a PEP is considered to hold a position which in itself constitutes a risk of being used for, for example, bribery. This also applies to immediate family members and close associates of PEP.
Prominent public functions refer to e.g. heads of state or government, ministers and deputy and deputy ministers, members of political parties, judges of the Supreme Court, members of courts of auditors (Sw. riksrevisorer) or of the boards of central banks (Sw. Riksbankens revision), ambassadors, senior military officers or persons included in state-owned companies' administrative, management or control bodies or a person in the management team of an international organization, such as the UN, the Council of Europe, NATO and the WTO.
An immediate family member is a spouse, registered partner or any partner considered by national law as equivalent to the spouse, children and children's spouse, registered partner or any partner considered by national law as equivalent to the spouse and parents.
A close associate can be a person who
The questions about Beneficial Owner and PEP do not need to be answered if the customer's shares are traded on a regulated market (publicly listed companies) in Sweden or within the EU/EEA or if the customer is a subsidiary of such a company.
In some cases, we may need documents confirming your identity and address, such as a copy of your passport, driver's license or other official photo ID card. If necessary, we also ask for documentation of the registration of your company and check that you have the right to represent the company.
Only a specially appointed group within Telia Finance will see and manage your answers and information. The information you provide to Telia Finance is handled in accordance with the bank secrecy rules and the Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Bank secrecy means that we have a duty of confidentiality.
Yes. All information relating to you and your transactions with Telia Finance is covered by confidentiality, regardless of whether the information is in writing or orally, and it also applies after the agreement has ended.
Telia Finance has very strict requirements that all customer information must be stored in a secure and protected manner.
If we do not succeed in getting the customer knowledge required by the anti-money laundering regulations, your opportunities to use Telia Finance's services may be limited. In the long run, this can also lead to you not being able to use our services, which of course is the last thing we want. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the information you provide is correct and complete.
Contact by phone and e-mail is usually smoother than physical letters if we need to ask additional questions or quickly sort out a minor question with you or your company's contact person.
We use the information to get to know and understand our customers in order to safeguard their financial interests and detect any criminal activity. We do this to protect you as a customer and society at large. We know that the vast majority of our customers are honest. According to the anti-money laundering regulations, all banks and financial institutions in Sweden are obligated to have good knowledge of their customers. The information is used to update our customer systems in order to meet the requirements of good customer knowledge. It also facilitates our work to follow up checks on sanction lists, i.e. lists of persons and companies covered by sanctions decided by, among others, the EU.
No, that's right. Telia Company is a telecom company. But Telia Finance, which is the company that provides the credit to you, is a credit market company which is under the supervision of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Sw. Finansinspektionen). A credit market company is considered equal to a bank in terms of complying with money laundering regulations. The purpose of the Anti-Money Laundering Act is to prevent banks and other financial institutions from being used to launder money that, for example, comes from crime or for the financing of terrorism.
If you’ve filled out the form wrong, we will find those errors in our automated review of your form and send a new form for you to fill out.
If you have more questions, you are always welcome to call our customer service;
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You will also find more information about the anti-money laundering regulations and customer knowledge by visiting the Swedish Bankers' Association's website and the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority's website.
You can find more information about why you have received these questions in 13 other languages on the Swedish Bankers’ Association’s website, found here, and on these local websites:
