1.  Article 4(1)(c) of TFR provides that: 

‘1. The payment service provider of the payer shall ensure that transfers of funds are accompanied by the following information on the payer: (…) (c) the payer’s address, official personal document number, customer identification number or date and place of birth’ (emphasis added).

2. As highlighted in Recital 3 of TFR, the provision referred to above stems from Recommendation 16 (“Wire transfers’) of the International Standards on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism & Proliferation adopted by the Financial Action Task Force on 12 February 2012 (‘The FATF Recommendations’, as updated). Recommendation 16 was the successor of Special Recommendation VII of the FATF. 

Interpretive Note to Recommendation 16 reads as follows in paragraph 6 (c):

‘6. Information accompanying all qualifying wire transfers should always contain: (…) (c) the originator’s address, or national identity number, or customer identification number, or date and place of birth; (…)’ (emphasis added). 

Hence, TFR did fully maintain the alternative between the date and place of birth, on the one hand, and the preceding data points listed in Article 4(1)(c) of TFR, on the other hand.

3. TFCR is TFR’s successor instrument and shall apply from 30 December 2024. It provides in Article 4(1)(c) that: 

‘1. The payment service provider of the payer shall ensure that transfers of funds are accompanied by the following information on the payer: (…) (c) the payer’s address, including the name of the country, official personal document number and customer identification number, or, alternatively, the payer’s date and place of birth; and (d) (…)’ (emphasis added).    

Article 14(1)(d) of TFCR provides for an identical obligation to that of Article 4(1)(c) of TFCR, using identical language, for the originator’s crypto-asset service provider and in respect of that originator.

4. Article 4(1)(c) of TFR is currently still construed in diverging fashions by payment service providers. 

Some providers consider that the payer’s date and place of birth constitute an alternative data point to all preceding information listed in point (c) (the payer’s address, official personal document number, and customer identification number). Accordingly, such providers consider the information required under TFR to be complete where transfers of funds are, together with the information required under Article 4(1), (a) and (b), of TFR, accompanied by such date and place of birth alone.

Other providers consider that transfers of funds must always include the payer’s address and official personal document number, and that the payer’s date and place of birth are an alternative data point to the payer’s customer identification number exclusively. Transfers that are only accompanied, together with the information required under Article 4(1), (a) and (b), of TFR, by the payer’s date and place of birth are therefore considered as lacking required payer information.

5. This misalignment may continue to cause transfers of funds to be rejected, or information requests to be issued, and providers to be considered as repeatedly failing within the meaning of Article 12 of TFR, because the payment service providers in the transfer chain may have adopted diverging conclusions regarding the required information that must always accompany such transfers pursuant to TFR. 

6. Because Article 4(1)(c) of TFR is essentially replicated in Article 4(1)(c) of TFCR, as well as extended to crypto-asset service providers in Article 14(1)(d) of TFCR, this misalignment is expected to persist after the entry into application of those provisions on 30 December 2024.

This is despite the augmented language now included in Article 4(1)(c) and 14(1)(d) of TFCR and highlighted above, which emphasises the legislator’s choice that the alternative is between the preceding payer’s identification data points, on the one hand, and the payer’s date and place of birth, on the other hand.

7. It should be clarified which interpretation should govern under TFR to ensure the consistent application thereof, as well as under TFCR as from 30 December 2024. Clarity and consistent application are necessary to ensure that payment service and crypto-asset service providers are aligned and consistently discharge their obligations by means of including and verifying the complete, consistent, reliable, and unambiguous identification of payers and originators in the information accompanying transfers, and thereby fulfil the objectives of TFR and TFCR.

To that end, the optionality provided for under Recommendation 16 of the FATF, as well as the augmented language included in Articles 4(1)(c) and in 14(1)(d) of TFCR, should be considered.