Prohibition of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism

Bank Mizrahi Tefahot is a partner in this struggle, and takes all measures necessary therefor, including conducting proper KYC with its customers and understanding their businesses in order to remove any doubt regarding the legitimacy of their activities and sources of their funds, in accordance with a risk-based approach, both when an account is opened and during its management.

The Bank will only open an account after conducting a proper KYC conversation with the client, which reasonably satisfies the Bank that in the expected activity or source of funds there is no concern of money laundering, financing of terrorism, trade with enemy elements or breach of international sanctions.

The Bank operates an automatic system for screening the names of clients and service recipients against lists of terrorist operatives and organizations to prevent the risks of financing of terrorism, and against lists of elements who aid the nuclear program of Iran.

For years, Israel has been committed to the struggle against bribery and corruption and is a member of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and of the UN Convention Against Corruption.

The Bank sees itself as a loyal partner in the international struggle against bribery and corruption, and will act to prevent its exploitation for such purposes.

The Bank will not allow the performance of actions in cases when there is a concern that the action being performed is related to bribery and corruption, and adopts appropriate mechanisms for such purpose, including by way of identifying customers who may be exposed to giving / receiving a bribe and becoming better acquainted with their expected activity and source of their funds, in order to rule out the concern that the funds involve money laundering or corruption. The Bank also maintains a table of states at risk regarding bribery and corruption, which is determined by the Transparency International (TI) organization.

International sanctions

"International institutions, including the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the HM Treasury's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, the European Commission, and many other regulatory bodies, have imposed international sanctions on states, entities and individuals. These sanctions programs address a variety of different foreign policy and national security priorities of the countries that promulgate them, including counterterrorism, counternarcotics, addressing war crimes or violations of human rights, cybersecurity and more.

"As part of the Bank's policy regarding anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing, and as part of its risk management approach, the Bank complies with U.S., UK, EU and other applicable sanctions and takes action to prevent any activity that could circumvent and/ or violate these sanctions programs. In this context, the Bank implements procedures and automated systems to restrict access to countries and territories under sanctions; The Bank employs a system for screening the names of clients, service recipients, and other transaction counterparts against individuals and entities listed under various sanctions programs, thereby mitigating the risk of breaching them; Moreover, the Bank conducts thorough examinations of relevant transactions related to certain sectors to assess their potential support for Russia's military-industrial base and implements additional measures to mitigate the risk of breaching international sanctions.

"The policy of the Bank is determined on a group-wide basis and will be binding upon the relevant subsidiaries of Mizrahi Tefahot Ltd. and the branches of the Bank in Israel and abroad, mutatis mutandis".

OFAC Site