The Hague Center for Law and Arbitration (‘HCLA’) is a network of legal professionals, arbitrators, legal counsel, and legal advisors. The HCLA-NETWORK’s legal professionals espouse decades of experiences as arbitrators, mediators, and civil law practitioners in their own respective jurisdictions, and have well-known records of appearances before arbitral tribunals in Zurich, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Paris, the Hague, and Lausanne. To clients, the HCLA offers international legal services composed of alternate dispute resolution services (including but not limited to, arbitration, mediation, and conciliation services), contract negotiations and drafting, due diligence checks, project management services, educational programs and research, and more.
Customer Due Diligence
Prospective clients retain the HCLA on an individual basis. This means that each client’s business relationship with the HCLA is unique, and this is reflected in the respective retainers signed by both parties. As a matter of internal policy, the HCLA operates a default customer due diligence process, or what is otherwise known as the Know-Your-Customer (‘KYC’) check.
Before the HCLA and the prospective client sign a retainer for the provision of HCLA’s services, the HCLA enquires with the prospective client about its (i) identity, (ii) intent, and (iii) country of origin. In the event that the client is an agent or representative of a beneficial owner, the HCLA undertakes to pose the same questions vis-à-vis the beneficial owner of the business relationship.
All information so received by the HCLA is strictly confidential, is kept archived in HCLA’s business records, and in the event of retainer culmination or termination, is kept on record for the minimum necessitated time (as per European Union, and Dutch law) and is eventually deleted.
The HCLA is fully cognisant that the due diligence process is an ongoing process, and in this spirit is always on the lookout for serious risk factors that may indicate money laundering operations, and/or terrorist financing risks. In the event that any such risk factors are identified by the HCLA in the business relationship, an automatic enhanced due diligence process is turned on wherein the HCLA begins asking further questions about the client’s intent in the established business relationship. At any time where the HCLA believes that the risk factors have culminated in illegal behavior by the client, it reserves its right to terminate the retainer, explaining to the client why it has done so.
