The Bank of Ghana (BoG) is poised to ensuring that the financial sector is clean from money laundering and financial terrorism in the country.
And to ensure the effectiveness of this, Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) as well as Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) have been advised to comply with existing laws and regulations governing the banking industry.
This is to safeguard public confidence and trust in the financial sector and also help build and sustain a robust Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating Financing of Terrorism (CFT) regime, Mr. George Nkrumah, Head of Financial Integrity Department of BoG, has said.
He was speaking at the opening of a two-day sensitization workshop for RCB’s and MFIs in the Southern Sector in Takoradi.
The workshop was aimed at equipping the institutions with the needed skills on how to report on suspected money laundering activities and how to combat them.
Some of the topic discussed include: Data Capture Return, Compliance with the BoG Dormant Account Directive, 2020 Fraud Report presentation. Also, participants were taken through one of the key aspects of the Continuous Due Diligence (CDD) process of Transaction Monitoring (TM), among others.
The workshop, will also facilitate the registering of the financial institutions on the GoAML, which is an Anti-Money Laundering platform.
Mr. Nkrumah explained that in June this year, the country came off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list after the international Cooperation Review Group (CRG) of FATF conducted its on-site examination on Ghana in May this year.
He said to remain off the grey list, all stakeholders in the fight against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (TF) will have to ensure full compliance with the laws and regulations.
He noted that most RCB’s and MFIs lack the technical and technological know-how to implement robust systems to fight the crime, hence, the need for the training.
He added that Ghana is reasonably compliant with the technical requirements of Anti-Money Laundering.
However, he said, the emphasis of the BoG is on the effectiveness of supervisory activities and preventive measures.
