# FATF R.13 — Correspondent banking - **Part of:** [[FATF Recommendations]] Financial institutions entering cross-border correspondent banking or similar relationships must, beyond normal customer due diligence, gather enough information on a respondent institution to understand its business, reputation and quality of supervision, assess its AML/CFT controls, obtain senior management approval before establishing the relationship, and clarify each institution's responsibilities. For payable-through accounts, the correspondent must be satisfied the respondent has conducted CDD on customers with direct account access. Correspondent relationships with shell banks are prohibited, and institutions must confirm respondents do not let shell banks use their accounts. ## Keyed AMLR articles - [[AMLR Art. 36 - EDD correspondent relationships|AMLR Art. 36]] — EDD correspondent relationships - [[AMLR Art. 37 - EDD correspondent for CASPs|AMLR Art. 37]] — EDD correspondent for CASPs - [[AMLR Art. 38 - Individual third-country respondents|AMLR Art. 38]] — Individual third-country respondents - [[AMLR Art. 39 - Shell-institution prohibition|AMLR Art. 39]] — Shell-institution prohibition ## Authoritative text > [!quote]- FATF Recommendation 13 — text of the Recommendation (FATF Recommendations, updated June 2026); interpretive note not reproduced > **13. Correspondent banking** > Financial institutions should be required, in relation to cross-border correspondent banking and other similar relationships, in addition to performing normal customer due diligence measures, to: > (a) gather sufficient information about a respondent institution to understand fully the nature of the respondent's business and to determine from publicly available information the reputation of the institution and the quality of supervision, including whether it has been subject to a money laundering or terrorist financing investigation or regulatory action; > (b) assess the respondent institution's AML/CFT controls; > (c) obtain approval from senior management before establishing new correspondent relationships; > (d) clearly understand the respective responsibilities of each institution; and > (e) with respect to "payable-through accounts", be satisfied that the respondent bank has conducted CDD on the customers having direct access to accounts of the correspondent bank, and that it is able to provide relevant CDD information upon request to the correspondent bank. > Financial institutions should be prohibited from entering into, or continuing, a correspondent banking relationship with shell banks. Financial institutions should be required to satisfy themselves that respondent institutions do not permit their accounts to be used by shell banks.