COSTA RICA Law and Practice Contributed by: Douglas Soto, Miguel Elizondo-Soto and Osvaldo Madrigal Méndez, Zurcher, Odio & Raven
procedures, and regular reporting obligations for suspect transactions. Thus, all banking institutions must: • obtain and keep information about the iden - tity of anyone who is a beneficiary of an open account or a financial transaction when there are doubts about clients who are not acting on their own benefit, especially in the case of institutional clients without any commercial industrial or financial activity in the country of origin or address; • keep only identified holder accounts – anony - mous or numbered accounts are forbidden, as are encrypted accounts or accounts under fictitious or inexact names; • register and verify by feasible means the identity, representation, address, activity or social object of the client, and other infor - mation about its identity; this information must be filed on a form signed by the client; if considered a high-risk client according to the qualification issued by SUGEF, financial entities must require a notary certification about the judicial and extrajudicial represen - tation of the entity; this verification will be implemented particularly when commercial relations are established, such as the opening of new accounts, trust transactions, security box leasing or transactions to or from foreign countries involving amounts equivalent to or higher than USD10,000; any documentation and files and records about these operations must be kept in custody for at least five years after the completion of such transaction; • ensure that bearer shares and numbered accounts are forbidden; regulated entities cannot open accounts or have an institutional client with bearer shares; foreign entities that request the opening of an account or any other transaction must be legally registered
in their country of origin, so that all of their shareholders can be identified; and • report to the authorities suspicious transac - tions or activities that do not fit into the client/ employee profile defined according to the policies approved for these purposes. 6. Depositor Protection 6.1 Deposit Guarantee Scheme (DGS) The Law of the Deposit Guarantee Fund and Liquidation of Financial Entities, No 9816, and its Regulation for the management of the Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGD) and other guar - antee funds (OGF), regulates deposit insurance through a special fund and banking resolution. The Deposit Guarantee Fund (the “Fund”) cre - ated by this law establishes three different com - partments: • one for public banks; • one for private banks and non-bank financial entities; and • a third for savings and credit co-operatives supervised by SUGEF, as well as other finan - cial entities. The Fund is administered by the Central Bank but is a separate estate and will have a man - ager subordinated to the board of directors of the Central Bank. Deposits such as savings, accounts and invest - ments opened in public banks, private banks and non-bank financial entities are covered by the Fund. The maximum coverage amount is approxi - mately USD10,000 per person/entity, in local or foreign currency.
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