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Why money laundering persists � CBN
Oluyinka Akintunde, Abuja
The Central Bank of Nigeria, on Tuesday, identified the failure to place money laundering in the realm of other serious crimes and rigid bank secrecy as major reasons for the persistence of money laundering in the financial system.
The Director of Banking Supervision Department of the CBN, Mr. Ignatius Imala, who gave this explanation in Abuja at the National Seminar on Economic Crimes, said the money launderers took advantage of the weaknesses in the financial system.
According to him, recent developments in Information Technology have further made financial transactions relatively easy, thus making the financial system vulnerable to the activities of money launderers.
He listed others weaknesses in the financial system, which gave leeway to money launderers in financial institutions, to include no required disclosure of the beneficial owner of an account or the true beneficiary of a transaction, no mandatory requirement for reporting suspicious transactions, use of monetary instruments payable to bearers, and patterns of evasion of exchange controls by nominally legitimate businesses.
Other weaknesses include, limited or weak bank regulatory controls, extensive foreign banking operations, limited asset seizure or confiscation capability, limited narcotics and money laundering enforcement and investigative capabilities, countries with free trade zones countries where dollar is readily acceptable, and patterns of official corruption or laissez-faire attitude toward the business and banking communities, among others.
He emphasised the need to combat money laundering due to the proceeds generated from illicit drug trafficking, which, he stated, enables transnational criminal organisations to penetrate, contaminate and corrupt structures of government, legitimate commercial and financial systems, and the society at all levels.
�Unchecked money laundering activities might erode the integrity of the nation�s financial system and adversely affect currency and interest rates.
�Money laundering activities are becoming increasingly more elusive, well financed and technologically empowered and have developed strong determination to subvert financial systems, which are basically the pivot of legitimate international transactions,� Imala pointed out.
He advocated that efforts should be made to enhance inter-agency co-operation in the fight against advance fee fraud and money laundering via sustained capacity building through manpower training and development, encouraging greater participation of the various agencies in funding anti-money laundering programmes, and continuous monitoring and review of existing money laundering laws and regulations.
The PUNCH, Wednesday, June 30, 2004
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