Financial Crime World

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Pacific Countries Strengthen Anti-Money Laundering Measures

A technical assistance project aimed at improving the “know your customer” (KYC) processes in four Pacific Developing Member Countries has been launched by the Asian Development Bank. The project will support Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu in enhancing their compliance with international requirements for anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT).

Improving Know Your Customer Processes

The project will work closely with participating financial institutions and regulatory agencies to roll out a technology-based platform that facilitates the standardization of workflows for reporting entities. This will enhance KYC based on risk assessments and consistent information sharing with partner financial institutions and regulators.

Addressing Key Concerns

According to the project rationale, high costs of remittances in the Pacific and poor sources of data for finance sector customer due diligence are major concerns. The project aims to address these issues by:

  • Improving knowledge and support technical assistance (TA) for financial institutions in participating countries.
  • Enhancing compliance with KYC requirements to reduce the likelihood of financial institutions losing bank accounts.

Project Objectives

The project is expected to have a significant impact on reducing the likelihood of financial institutions losing bank accounts due to non-compliance with KYC requirements, and moving costs of remittances in Pacific DMCs closer to global averages.

Key Milestones

  • Implementation of an existing identity verification database improvement
  • Linkage utility establishment
  • Technology platform for KYC facility implementation
  • Legal and regulatory diagnostics and reforms to enable the use of the KYC facility in Pacific DMCs

Funding

The project is funded by a grant from the Technical Assistance Special Fund and the Regional Cooperation and Integration Fund, amounting to US$1.5 million.

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