Who must comply?
- Banks providing cross-border correspondent banking services
- Banks acting as respondents in correspondent relationships
- Securities firms with similar cross-border relationships
Key requirements
- 1
Gather sufficient information about the respondent
Understand fully the nature of the respondent's business, its reputation and the quality of its supervision — including whether it has been subject to ML/TF investigation or regulatory action.
- 2
Assess the respondent's AML/CFT controls
Evaluate the respondent's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing programmes — including CDD, transaction monitoring, suspicious-transaction reporting and sanctions screening.
- 3
Senior management approval
Obtain approval from senior management before establishing new correspondent relationships. The decision must be documented with the rationale and risk profile.
- 4
Document respective AML/CFT responsibilities
Clearly document the AML/CFT responsibilities of each institution — particularly regarding payment-through accounts, third-party KYC reliance, and screening obligations.
- 5
Payable-through accounts
Where the correspondent allows the respondent's customers direct access to the correspondent's account, the correspondent must satisfy itself that the respondent has performed CDD on those customers and can provide relevant data on request.
- 6
Prohibition of shell banks
Financial institutions must refuse to enter into, or continue, a correspondent banking relationship with shell banks (banks with no physical presence and not affiliated with a regulated group) — and must satisfy themselves that respondents do not allow shell-bank access.
Practical example
Example: a US bank evaluates a Mexican respondent
A US bank evaluates whether to open a USD nostro account for a Mexican SOFOM ENR. Under R.13: the US bank requests the SOFOM's AML manual, organisational chart, list of senior compliance officers, results of recent CNBV inspections, sanctions-screening procedures, and a sample of suspicious-transaction reports filed in the past year. The Bank's Country Risk Committee approves the relationship with conditions: monthly transaction-volume reporting, quarterly review, immediate notification of any regulatory action, and explicit prohibition of routing transactions for any unregulated VASP.
How Mexico implements it
Country-specific section in Spanish — Mexican regulatory references (LFPIORPI, CNBV, SAT, UIF).
México regula la banca corresponsal en el régimen financiero (LIC + DCG CNBV):
Disposiciones CNBV — Banca corresponsal
Las DCG aplicables a instituciones de crédito establecen los requisitos para entablar relaciones de corresponsalía: due diligence sobre el respondiente, aprobación de alta dirección, documentación de responsabilidades, prohibición de bancos pantalla.
De-risking — un riesgo real
Un fenómeno relacionado con la R.13 es el de-risking: bancos corresponsales (especialmente estadounidenses) cierran relaciones con bancos respondientes en mercados percibidos como de alto riesgo. México ha sufrido este efecto, particularmente en remesas y transacciones con el sector cripto.
Banxico y supervisión
Banxico monitorea el sistema de pagos transfronterizos (SPID, SPEI) y coopera con la CNBV en la supervisión de relaciones de corresponsalía. Cualquier debilitamiento del régimen ALA mexicano puede impactar el acceso de la banca mexicana a corresponsales globales.
Milestones
-
2003
Original Recommendation 7 on correspondent banking
-
2012
Renumbered as Recommendation 13 with broader scope
-
2016
FATF Guidance on correspondent banking addresses de-risking
-
2025
October 2025 update reinforces nesting and shell-bank prohibitions
Related Recommendations
Other Recommendations in Group D — Preventive Measures
Official citation
FATF (2012-2025), International Standards on Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism & Proliferation, Recommendation 13, FATF, Paris, France. Last updated October 2025.
Read the official text on fatf-gafi.org