Personal Identification in Financial Services

The article analyses how financial institutions in Lithuania identify their customers before starting to provide their services to them, and how the mentioned institutions implement the principle “get to know your customer.” This requirement has emerged from the importance of the prevention of money laundering. In the complex legal regulatory mechanism the following concepts appear: proper identification, simplified identification, identification without being physically present. These methods differ with regard to the scope of the gathered personal data and the method of data collection. Theoretical legal possibilities not to gather personal data appear where customers can stay anonymous in electronic payments of small sums especially in the case of electronic money. Index Terms: prevention of money laundering, customer identification, customer due diligence measures, simplified customer due diligence measures, enhanced customer due diligence. JEL Classification: G2, K33, K4.