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Risk Based Approach would ensure sanity in financial institutions – GIABA

By
Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, Aug. 20, GNA
– A Risk Based Approach (RBA) to Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing
of Terrorism (AML/CFT) would help bring sanity in the financial institutions
and to ensure an effective or robust AM L/CFT regime.

Mr Kwaku Dua,
Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA)
and the National Correspondent/Chief Executive Officer, Financial Intelligence
Centre, said a RBA to AML/CFT seeks to ensure that countries, competent
authorities and financial institutions, take necessary steps to identify,
assess and understand the ML/FT risks to which they are exposed and take
AML/CFT measures commensurate to those risks in order to mitigate them
effectively.

Mr Dua said this on
Tuesday at the opening of the Regional Train-The-Trainers’ Workshop on
Risk-Based Supervision for AML/CFT Compliance in Accra.

The four-day works
workshop is being organised by the Inter-Governmental Action Group against
Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), a specialised institution of ECOWAS; in
collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ).

It is being attended
by more than 40 participants from the five Anglophone countries in the ECOWAS
Sub-Region: Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia.

The primary
objective of the workshop is to equip participants with the necessary technical
skills to be able to deliver similar training in their respective countries.

Mr Dua said Ghana
conducted its National Risk Assessment in 2014 and was revised in 2018; stating
that in line with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards, the
findings of the National Risk Assessment (NRA) which was well communicated to
all identified some lapses in the country’s AML/CFT Supervisory regime.

Mr Dua recalled
that, one of the strategic deficiencies identified during their Second Round of
Mutual Evaluations was on Immediate Outcome Three, which seeks to ensure that
Supervisors appropriately supervise, monitor and regulate financial
institutions and Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs)
for compliance with AML/CFT requirements commensurate with their risks.

“Indeed, Ghana was
rated Moderate which is an indication that, we still have some work to do in this
area,” he said.

He said due to some
of this deficiencies; Ghana is under observation by the International Country
Risk Guide (ICRG).

He said the ICRG
handed down an action plan with timelines for Ghana to address.

One of the action
items was the improvement of risk based supervision by developing a robust risk
assessment methodology for (including but not limited to) the Non-Bank
Financial Intermediaries (NBFIs) and DNFBPs sectors.

Others are enhancing
risk-based supervisory capacity of regulators and launching a regular fora or
mechanism to facilitate communication between supervisors and the private
sector.

There rest are
conducting inspections of NBFIs and DNFBPs on a risk sensitive basis and
demonstrating impact of supervision activities (including sanctions/penalties)
on compliance with requirements

Mr Dua said the
frequency and intensity of onsite and offsite AML/CFT supervision of their
respective sectors was very key to a robust AML/CFI’ regime.

“We believe that
this workshop is timely and at the end of the day would sharpen your
supervisory skills even more to undertake more effective offsite and onsite
inspections which will go a long way to address the deficiencies identified
during our Mutual Evaluation exercise,” he said.

Dr Ernest Addison,
Governor of the Bank of Ghana, in speech read on his behalf, announced that
processes were being put in place by the Bank to develop robust framework for
implementing a RBA to AML/CFT for DNFBPs.

Mr Aba Kimelabalou,
Director-General, GIABA, in a speech read on his behalf, said the complex and
dynamic nature of ML/TF makes it imperative for stakeholders to continue to
work in partnership and to explore better ways to counter the threats posed by
this seemingly intractable problem.

Mr Oral Williams of
the IMF said with the introduction of the FATF new framework, many countries
have not yet had the expected ratings as when there is new reforms it takes
time.

Mr Opimbi Osore,
African Coordinator, GIZ, Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) Programme, said if
African nations do not effectively combat IFFs, their economic growth would be
undermined.

GNA

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