Money laundering a concern

By DALE LUMA
MONEY laundering is becoming a big concern for money remitters in the country, says Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) acting assistant governor George Awap.
“That is why a lot of international banks are taking a position to de-risk in the areas they consider are high risk and low value to them,” he said.
“Everything is running on a business case.
“We are facing the same threat here in PNG.” During the launching of Post PNG as a direct agent of Western Union and becoming a money-remitter, Awap said many banks in South Pacific countries had closed down.
“You have a lot of banks which have closed down,” he said.
“BSP (Bank South Pacific Financial Group Ltd) has bought off a lot of operations of those banks.
“It is very critical to know that money laundering and financial terrorism is a big issue in the region.
“AML (anti-money laundering) and CTF (counter-terrorism financing) monitoring of people conducting transactions are important.
“Customer due diligence is the No.1 priority because when you have problems with it, only then can there be issues emanating from that.
“Commercial banks are good in money remittance because they do a lot of due diligence work.
“They understand the person, their business relationship officers are always monitoring the accounts of the person, and they know the person in and out before they allow international transactions to take place.
“This is something that we have to manage because there are risks that come with it.
“So we have to be careful with data and the monitoring systems.”