Curacao Sets New Rules for Remote Customer Verification

Curacao regulators have introduced binding requirements for remote customer identification and verification.

The rules were developed by the Curacao Gaming Authority, the Central Bank of Curacao and Sint Maarten, and the Financial Intelligence Unit Curacao. They apply to service providers covered by the National Ordinance on Identification when rendering Services.

Operators can use passports, identity cards, driving licences or other approved documents to confirm customer identity. Remote checks may also use technology such as document scanning, facial recognition, video verification and liveness detection.

Unattended onboarding systems must use reliable algorithms and capture images or video during the verification process. If the system cannot confirm a customer's identity with enough confidence, the process must stop, restart or move to face-to-face verification.

Companies must also test remote onboarding tools before launch, keep records of the checks and monitor the systems for fraud, security problems and other risks.

The Curaçao supervisory authorities emphasised:

All operators are encouraged to review the provisions carefully, take note of the applicable requirements.

Companies already using remote onboarding have until May 1, 2027 to become fully compliant. New solutions must meet the requirements before they are introduced.