CBK wants list of high-risk transfers; Oversight enhanced

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KUWAIT CITY, Jan 19: The Central Bank of Kuwait has requested exchange companies to urgently provide it with a statement that includes “high-risk” customers, (company’s clients, divided according to the degree of risk specified for each of them [low – medium – high]) including those who conduct money transfers to countries included in the red list of high-risk countries classification as well as the number of suspected cases of money laundering or terrorist financing that it has been monitored during the last 3 years, reports Al-Rai daily. Relevant sources told the daily the regulator’s moves in this regard come within a broader supervisory coordination, led by the Central Bank, to ensure the ability of exchange companies, banks and finance companies to bypass the expected assessment to be conducted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) next May, on the extent of compliance by Kuwait and its financial institutions with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing requirements.

The sources stated that, based on the provisions of Law No. (106) of 2013 regarding combating money laundering and terrorist financing, its executive regulations, and related decisions and instructions, the Central Bank requested exchange companies to provide it with the data within 10 working days. The CBK suggested to exchange companies and local financial institutions earlier that the “FATF” team would ask them if they had discovered suspicious cases in which the information kept about the real beneficiaries did not match the information updated about them, and their number, in addition to the procedures for verifying the identity of the real beneficiary.

Among the expected questions is to assess their efficiency in combating money laundering and terrorist financing operations is that if there are systems used to detect conformity, what are the applicable scenarios for issuing an alert, what is the percentage of similarity established in the system for issuing the alert and what are the bases for building this ratio? When providing bank credit services, how is the identity of the goods and their relevance to dual-use goods ascertained? It is noteworthy that the tasks of the “FATF” are to set standards and promote the effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation, and other threats related to the integrity of the international financial system.

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