Financial Crime World

Identity Theft and Financial Crimes in Burundi: A Growing Concern

The fight against identity theft and financial crimes in Burundi has become a pressing issue for regulators and financial institutions alike. According to KPMG’s report, Ten Key Regulatory Challenges of 2023, fraud and financial crime are ongoing risks that require constant mitigation.

Regulatory Focus

Regulators in Burundi will continue to focus on areas such as:

  • Terrorist financing
  • Beneficial ownership
  • Sanctions/tax evasion
  • Consumer scams
  • Compliance violations

The report highlights the importance of:

  • Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CFT) frameworks
  • Fraud models
  • Operations
  • Investigation processes

New Areas of Regulatory Focus

The rapid growth of:

  • Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)
  • Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platforms

has led to an elevated risk of money laundering and terror financing. Regulators are expanding AML regulations to include:

  • Assessing Customer Due Diligence (CDD)
  • Suspicious activity reporting related to NFTs and DeFi platforms

Sanctions and Price Cap Compliance

Continued geopolitical discord will result in continued focus on sanctions and price cap compliance, including:

  • Virtual currency mining
  • Dark net markets
  • Bans on a broad range of services to sanctioned entities/countries

Interplay with Consumer Protection

Regulators will continue to assess companies’ consumer protection practices, including:

  • Fair processing and treatment of consumer complaints, claims, and disputes
  • Implementing risk programs that identify and mitigate fraud/scams directed at vulnerable populations, such as:
    • The elderly
    • Low-income individuals

Evolving Risks

Regulators in Burundi face the challenge of mitigating complex and evolving risks, including:

  • Domestic and international terrorist financing
  • Increased focus on OFAC and sanctions
  • Transnational criminal organizations
  • Drug and human trafficking
  • Smuggling
  • Proliferation financing
  • Synthetic identity fraud

Conclusion

In today’s ever-changing environment, fintech and payments companies must ensure they are protecting their customers by combating fraud, money laundering, and related financial crimes on their platforms. Companies should consider ways to responsibly leverage technology and data to monitor activity, coupled with a deep focus on customer experience.