The Wwft stands for the Dutch "Wet ter voorkoming van witwassen en financieren van terrorisme," which translates to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act. It is a Dutch law aimed at preventing and combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The law imposes obligations on various sectors, including financial institutions such as banks, insurance companies, trust offices, and professionals like notaries, accountants, and real estate agents.

The Wwft requires us to conduct customer due diligence to establish your identity and monitor and report unusual transactions. The goal is to detect and prevent suspicious financial activities, ensuring that the financial system is not exploited for criminal purposes such as money laundering and/or terrorism financing.

Handing in additional documents does not mean we suspect you of money laundering or terrorism. We are just following standard procedures that apply to everyone.

Based on Dutch legal obligations arising from the AMLD (Anti-Money Laundering Directive) and SW (Sanctions Act), we cannot delete any data obtained during the onboarding process or your client relationship.

We understand this might not be the answer you hoped for, but we hope you know we are legally obligated to retain your documents. This is required by Dutch regulators and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). Your data is securely stored in locked systems that are accessible only when necessary.

Under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act (AMLD), certain institutions must conduct customer due diligence and store customer information. This can include making a copy of your ID or other customer details. As this is a legal requirement, retaining your personal data does not violate the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR allows the processing of personal data when legally required. Thus, the AMLD provides a clear purpose (to comply with the law) and a legal basis for processing personal data under the AMLD.