A Butterfield Bank executive yesterday urged people to be patient with demands banks might make when opening accounts or monitoring account activity as the requests are part of regulations designed to help eliminate money laundering.

Allison Baillie, vice president group compliance enterprise risk management, said that even companies that are 100 years old must now provide their original articles of incorporation while people that have been banking with an institution for 30 years are being asked to bring in identification and a copy of their utility bill as part of anti-money laundering requirements designed to determine the legitimacy of a potential client.

While know your customer regulations are designed to stop illicit activity, Ms Baillie said however that customers should view it in a positive protection as well.

"If we didn't have the KYC process in place, there would definitely be more identity theft going on. KYC, although sometimes tedious for you and I is a positive thing not only for the bank, but also for the community," she told Hamilton Rotary Club. Monitoring after the account is opened includes the bank asking clients to fill out a declaration of source of funds when they deposit large sums cash in the bank. Clients who make frequent cash deposits can be vetted for the manager's list to eliminate the need to fill out a form for every large deposit.

The compliance department is also responsible for watching out for any transactions outside of anticipated account activity. While most can be explained, the bank will certainly question why someone deposited $8,000 in their account when their KYC file states they are unemployed. In those cases, suspicious activity reports are compiled.

To date this year, the bank's compliance department has received 79 internal reports of suspicious activity. The figure however may not reflect an increase in crime but only the fact that internally the bank's compliance procedures as well its access to information has improved.

"We are very cautious and we do go with the philosophy if in doubt fill it out but we have more access to information in terms of systems and transactions," she said stressing that the suspicious activities reports may come to nothing. "It does not mean that the individual is actually laundering money. That information never gets out to the public nor does it go any further if there isn't any reason for investigations to occur."

Ms Baillie was unable to say how many of these reports were actually forwarded onto the Police, however the monitoring that the bank does certainly helps Police locate and catch these criminals.

"Since joining Butterfield Bank last year, I have seen lot of our work with the police lead to arrest and convictions and this is a good thing for Bermuda. Instead of thinking of compliance as a bottleneck, we like to think of us as gatekeepers; protecting the Bank, you and the community from he criminal underbelly that exists whether you like it or not.

Beyond using the bank and depositing duffel bags of cash, Ms Baillie said that criminals may well launder their proceeds by using innocent people.

"A criminal purchases some very nice jewellery, paying for it in cash; the businessman that owns that jewellery store has just become a victim of money laundering. This same criminal purchases more jewellery, again paying for it in cash. He then takes this jewellery to a pawnshop and gets a cheque for the sale, which he deposits into his account," she said adding that criminals accept the fact that its costs about 20 percent to launder money so the loss he takes at the pawnshop is just part of doing business."

In light of this fact, England and the US already require many big ticket businesses that accept cash to comply with anti-money laundering regulations by reporting suspicious activities or instances where the customer pays cash over a certain amount.

While such rules have not been instituted in Bermuda, Ms Baillie told the Rotary Club that businesses should take steps to avoid being used by a criminal by keeping their eyes open for anything that just doesn't appear normal.

"To you, I say if in doubt pickup the phone. Any information the police receives gets them one step closer to criminal activity and we, as a community in turn are one step closer to eliminating crime."