Banks highly prone to money laundering

NAMIBIA’S commercial banks have emerged as the preferred route for activities linked to money laundering, with the sector leading the pack with more than half of all the flagged suspicious transactions reported at the end of March 2019.

The numbers are contained in the 2018/19 annual report of the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), and show that the banking sector reported around 972 suspicious transactions and 177 suspicious activities for the year.

The banks are followed by forex traders (authorised dealers in foreign exchange), who reported 262 suspicious transactions and 12 cases of suspicious activities.

For the past 12 months, legal practitioners have reported 15 suspicious activities, while asset managers have reported 25 cases. The real estate sector recorded some 45 suspicious transactions and activities.

Insurance entities, investment brokers and motor-vehicle dealers are also some of the sectors which are deemed medium-risk in terms of exposure to money laundering activities, and have reported 36 suspicious transactions and activities for the year.

The centre attributed the increase in suspicious activities’ reporting to consistent anti-money laundering/combating terrorist financing training, supervision and quality of reporting monitoring.

“The registered firms/institutions are expected to conduct certain gatekeeping functions, and implement certain measures to enhance compliance and reduce risks of money laundering (ML)/terrorist financing (TF) and weapon-making funding,” the report stated.

The FIC is likewise exploring innovative technologies, driven by machine learning, which can assist them to address critical human shortages experienced by the institution, as well as the conducting of timeous financial investigations and the analysis of all types of reports received.

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