Angolan banks are at “high” risk of money laundering and “medium” risk of terrorist financing, according to sector risk assessments carried out by the National Bank of Angola (BNA).
In a statement published on its website, the BNA said that “banking financial institutions have a high level of risk (high threats and high vulnerabilities)” while non-banking institutions, “with a high level of threats and medium-high vulnerabilities, have a medium-high level of risk”.
The risk of terrorist financing for commercial banks “is medium, resulting from a medium threat level and medium vulnerabilities”.
With regard to non-banking financial sector institutions under BNA supervision, “the level of risk is low for (mobile) payment service providers, while remittance service providers have a medium level of risk, with a tendency towards high, as a result of the equal weighting of medium-high threats and medium-high vulnerability”.
Faced with the risks of terrorist financing and money laundering, supervised financial institutions must now define and implement the necessary measures to mitigate them, the regulator emphasises.
Measures should include increasing employee awareness of the types and indicators of suspicion related to money laundering, providing regular updates to the management body on the financial institution’s exposure to money laundering risk and putting in place clear internal policies, procedures and processes to facilitate the identification and dissemination of information on possible money laundering-related activities.
Prevention tools must also be adapted, “making them more robust to monitor clients and transactions commensurate with the risk of money laundering and calibrating risk matrices so that they allow the definition of the client’s risk profile”.
In addition, “financial institutions are also obliged to carry out internal risk assessments so that they are aware of the risk to which they are exposed”.
The final result of the sectoral risk assessments was presented on 7 June in Luanda, at a session attended by authorities with supervisory and inspection responsibilities, the Financial Information Unit, courts, the Attorney General’s Office, criminal investigation bodies and financial institutions.
Source: Lusa
