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Money laundering, a more subtle yet
exquisitely orchestrated of transnational crimes is in its very
early stages in Samoa.
According Mr. Mike Guerin, Managing
Director of ANZ Pacific, Samoa is display “early signs”
of money laundering like other Pacific island countries.
“There is evidence of money
laundering in the region, transnational crime and money laundering
is an increasing concern worldwide,” Mr. Guerin said.
According to him the Pacific is becoming a
focal point for terrorists looking for easy places to launder
money.
“These criminals appear to strike
randomly in different locations, they’re hard to pick,”
he said.
Guerin maintained that “were not
seeing anything unique in Samoa that we are not seeing elsewhere in
the Pacific,” in terms of money laundering.
ANZ Pacific being one of major Banks in
the Pacific is now strengthening protection against such crimes
according to Guerin.
“What were doing is we are building
a new strength across the Pacific and Samoa is being considered in
the same way as the rest of the 12 countries of ANZ, for those
upgrades, Guerin said.
“The biggest reason we are investing
in a new banking platform is for exactly that reason. As it relates
to the Pacific some of those international crime gangs and the more
sophisticated criminals have focused elsewhere where the
money-go-round is bigger, for example Asia,” he said.
But it is not all good news, he said that
as banks build security and strength in the way they’ve
managed their money and protect their depositors dollars, those
same criminals look for software where they can more easily get
hold of money.
He said: “If things go the same way
as they have in Asia and elsewhere that without that additional
protection we might put depositors funds at risk,”
He said: “Now it’s the time
where banks and other people that manage money should be thinking
carefully about building protection around that so when they turn
up here of course they find the same security and protection in the
banking system here that they get elsewhere.”
Currently procedures are in place and ANZ
is currently enhancing them to ensure further protection of
customer according to Guerin.
Asked about some of the methods used to
detect money laundering activities, he said: “There are
confidential elements to the methods we use to detect such
activities.”
He did however allude to physical and
structural protection which exist in Samoa such as anti jump
screens and CCTV.
“There’s also things such as
suspicious activity reports and requirements of the Central
Bank,” Guerin said.
According to the Managing Director there
are other methods that help ANZ: “In a normal event,
there’s a normal traffic and a normal pattern to the way we
transact with our customers, and sometimes when something looks out
of place that can be picked up through suspicious transaction
activities that can operate in the backing of our computing
systems, so theres a lot of electronic support to spotting things
outside the norm.”
But Guerin asserted: “Nothing is
full proof in life, but the new measures are an enhancement to what
we have at present.”
Come November, Guerin says ANZ Samoa will
introduce a new computer based programme dubbed
‘Voyage’ which will replace the present telling system
at ANZ.
“It brings a whole lot of customer
friendly elements in web based environment which makes transactions
faster and it provides that additional layer of security, so the
programme voyage encapsulates those two pieces.”
ANZ Pacific currently operates in 12
countries, has 52 branches and employees over 1,700 people in the
region.
Facts about money laundering
Money laundering, the metaphorical
"cleaning of money" with regard to appearances in law, is the
practice of engaging in specific financial transactions in order to
conceal the identity, source, and/or destination of money, and is a
main operation of underground economy.
In the past, the term "money laundering"
was applied only to financial transactions related to organized
crime. Today its definition is often expanded by government
regulators (such as the United States Office of the Comptroller of
the Currency) to encompass any financial transaction which
generates an asset or a value as the result of an illegal act,
which may involve actions such as tax evasion or false accounting.
As a result, the illegal activity of money laundering is now
recognized as potentially practiced by individuals, small and large
businesses, corrupt officials, members of organized crime (such as
drug dealers or the Mafia) or of cults, and even corrupt states,
through a complex network of shell companies and trusts based in
offshore tax havens. The increasing complexity of financial crime,
the increasing recognised value of so-called "financial
intelligence" (FININT) in combating transnational crime and
terrorism, and the speculated impact of capital extracted from the
legitimate economy has led to an increased prominence of money
laundering in political, economic, and legal debate.
[Wikipedia]
Samoas stance on transnational crime
Samoa does not have major organized crime,
fraud, or drug problems. The most common crimes that generate
revenue within the jurisdiction are primarily the result of
low-level fraud and theft. The domestic banking system is very
small, and there is relatively little risk of significant money
laundering derived from domestic sources. Samoa's offshore banking
sector is relatively small. The Government of Samoa (GOS) enacted
the Money Laundering Prevention Act (the Act) in 2000. This law
criminalizes money laundering associated with numerous crimes, sets
measures for the prevention of money laundering and related
financial supervision. Newly adopted regulations and guidelines
fully implementing this legislation came into force in 2002. Under
the Act, a conviction for a money laundering offense is punishable
by a fine not to exceed Western Samoa Tala (WST) one million
(approximately $354,000), a term of imprisonment not to exceed
seven years, or both.
The Act requires financial institutions to
report transactions considered suspicious to the Money Laundering
Prevention Authority (MLPA), the Samoa Financial Intelligence Unit
(FIU) currently working under the auspices of the Governor of the
Central Bank. The MLPA receives and analyzes Samoa disclosures, and
if it establishes reasonable grounds to suspect that a transaction
involves the proceeds of crime, it refers the information to the
Attorney General and the Commissioner of Police. In 2003, Samoa
established under the authority of the Ministry of the Prime
Minister, an independent and permanent Transnational Crime Unit
(TCU). The TCU is staffed by personnel from the Samoa Police
Service, Immigration Division of the Ministry of the Prime Minister
and Division of Customs. The TCU is responsible for intelligence
gathering and analysis and investigating transnational crimes,
including money laundering, terrorist financing and the smuggling
of narcotics and people. [International Narcotics Control Strategy
Report]
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