Welcome

Let's be clear: the Forum makes no comment on any moral perspective or the rights of any individual to view themselves in any particular way nor are we concerned with matters of policy: the focus is entirely upon identifying and addressing KYC issues when a person "self-identifies" in a way which is inconsistent with, or contrary to, the that person's legal and verifiable identity.

In December 2023 police in Germany arrested more than 20 people accused of right-wing extremism. Some falsely described their credentials, some claimed to be citizens of a breakaway republic. It is one of many examples groups seek to create a national identity or, if not actually a nationality, a jurisdiction that people can become tax residents of.

Some go even further and declare themselves to be "sovereign citizens" with freedom from the laws of any state.

We have, in the past decade, seen significant pressure to allow persons to describe themselves as other than male or female. From a Know Your Customer perspective, this creates a mass of uncertainty especially in cases such as that in November 2022 when a prospective Member of Parliament in England declared first that he wanted to be known as "Miss" and then gave an interview saying that some days he's "a boy" and others he's "a girl."

The challenges include this: if a person undergoes surgery and declares him/herself to be the opposite gender and changes the name, do official records follow to the new name? If not, and if there is no centralised register of such changes (which would, I would argue, be oppressive) and if asking questions about sexuality is illegal on grounds of discrimination, where does this leave the most fundamental of KYC tests?

We have for some years had to contend with arguments over the Mrs./Miss/Ms description. Have we ever solved that? Many women, upon marriage, take their husband's surname for their personal lives but keep their maiden name (or even a previous married name) for their professional lives. In the arts, many people, male and female, have "stage names" or "nom de plumes." One large international bank, in its private banking division, long allowed celebrities to hold bank accounts in entirely fictitious names and issued cards and cheque books in those names.

Countries define race in different ways and in some countries the legal race defines the rights and liabilities of the individual. We see people choosing a racial identity when that is clearly a decision based on emotion, not on genetics.

There is the issue that countries and courts have ruled on some of these matters - and decisions are contradictory. Is it possible to create a global, standardised, system?

Our speakers will address many of these issues and in my remaining time, I will look at the issue of national identity including sovereign citizens.