BSP recruiting more staff to improve anti-money laundering unit

The National National

By DALE LUMA
A BANK is recruiting more staff to improve the effectiveness of its anti-money laundering unit.
Chief executive officer of the Bank South Pacific Financial Group Ltd (BSP) Robin Fleming said the additional positions were for the retail and anti-money laundering business units.
The bank last week advertised vacancies for 35 anti-money laundering analysts, one technical analyst and four senior analysts to be based in Port Moresby.
“(It) is part of an ongoing uplift in BSP’s capacity to continue to improve the effectiveness of our anti-money laundering programme in Papua New Guinea,” Fleming said.
Last month, Papua New Guinea’s financial analysis and supervision unit (Fasu) took regulatory action against BSP for allegedly not complying with certain measures.
BSP was:

  • ISSUED a formal warning under section 100 of the AML/CTF Act 2015;
  • GIVEN an enforceable undertaking that will remove and replace certain executive management staff pursuant to Section 102 of the Act; and,
  • TOLD to engage an external auditor pursuant to Section 10 of the Act.

The external auditor is to determine the full extent of the underlying good governance and best business practice issues that were identified during the on-site inspection.