Takoradi, Dec. 13, GNA- The Bank of Ghana has called on Rural and Community Banks to ensure strict compliance and effective monitoring of all bank transactions.
The move is to ensure that criminals do not use them as conduits to perpetuate or facilitate illicit financial trade.
Mr George Nkrumah, Head of Financial Integrity at the Bank of Ghana said this on Monday at a sensitization workshop for Rural and Community Banks and some microfinance institutions in the Western and Central Regions in Takoradi in the Western Region.
He said the continuous processes of effective transaction monitoring would flag and report transactions that were unusual and suspicious and help prevent criminals from using them as a conduit for money laundering and Terrorist Financing.
Mr Nkrumah said the need for due diligence had become critical to improving financial intelligence, enhancing collaboration, and ultimately sanitizing the financial environment.
The Bank of Ghana, he announced, was making inroads through the engagement of such smaller institutions to support the expansion of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing risks assessment methodology.
The Financial Integrity Head noted that the Bank would register such banks on the “GoAML” application platform used by the Financial Intelligence Units to improve upon their financial intelligence reporting.
Mr Nkrumah noted that Ghana over the years, had become compliant with the technical requirement with emphasis on supervisory and preventive measures.
Ghana, he said, needed strong and viable financial systems and it was imperative to abide by high standards in the sector to achieve the sustainable regime required for financial stability.
Participants would, therefore, be introduced to Key aspects of Continuous Due Diligence, Population and Submission of Data Capture Returns, Self-assessment questionnaire, “GoAML” architecture, 2020 fraud report, and compliance with the BoG Dormant Account Directive.
GNA