Compliance

1. Our commitment

Zuri Finance (“ZuriFi”) operates a board-approved anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing (AML/CFT) programme, overseen by a designated Compliance Officer, covering every business line: payment infrastructure, retail on/off-ramp services, OTC trading, and cross-border collections and payouts delivered through licensed payment partners.

The programme is designed around Rwanda’s Law N° 75/2019 of 29/01/2020 on the prevention and punishment of money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing, the reporting framework of the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) of Rwanda, and the FATF 40 Recommendations. Where requirements differ, the stricter standard applies.

2. Customer due diligence

No customer is activated before due diligence is complete and screening is clear. Business customers go through a risk-based KYB process: verification of legal existence, directors and ultimate beneficial owners (25% or more ownership or control), review of business activity and website, source of funds, and an expected transaction profile recorded at onboarding. Individual customers are verified against government-issued identity documents. Higher-risk relationships — including politically exposed persons and complex ownership structures — require enhanced due diligence and senior approval, and all files are refreshed on a risk-based cycle.

3. Screening and monitoring

• Sanctions and PEP screening. Every customer, director, beneficial owner, sender and beneficiary is screened against consolidated international sanctions lists (including UN, OFAC, EU and UK), PEP data and watchlists, at onboarding and continuously, with list data refreshed daily.
• Transaction monitoring.All transactions are monitored in real time against each customer’s declared profile — velocity, value, corridors and counterparties — with every alert investigated and its outcome recorded in our case-management system with a full audit trail.

4. Reporting and cooperation

Substantiated suspicion leads to restriction of the relationship, reporting to the Financial Intelligence Centre of Rwanda where required by law, and notification of the relevant payment partner within 24 hours of identification. We respond to partner risk enquiries within one business day and retain all compliance records for a minimum of five years. All staff complete AML/CFT training at onboarding and annually.

5. Regulatory status

For cross-border collections and payouts, ZuriFi acts as a Technology Service Provider to licensed payment partners: we provide the customer interface and transmit payment instructions by API, and we do not hold, pool or transmit customer funds — regulated payment activities are executed by our partners under their own licences. Rwanda does not yet have a dedicated licensing framework for stablecoin and virtual-asset activity, which the National Bank of Rwanda accommodates through its regulatory sandbox; ZuriFi monitors these developments and will seek the relevant authorisation once an applicable framework is in force.

6. Requests

Payment partners, financial institutions and regulators may request our full AML/CFT policy and supporting documentation at info@zuri.finance.