Angolan banks pose a “high” money laundering risk and a “medium” terrorist financing risk, according to industry risk assessments conducted by the Banque National de Angolan (BNA).
A statement published on the BNA website said that “banking financial institutions pose a high level of risk (high threats and high vulnerabilities),” while non-banking institutions “with a high level of threats and medium-high vulnerabilities represent a medium-high level risk.”
As for the risks of terrorist financing for commercial banks, they are “average, due to the average level of threats and an equally average level of vulnerabilities.”
With respect to non-bank financial sector institutions supervised by the BNA, “the level of risk for (mobile) payment service providers is low, while remittance service providers pose a medium level of risk, with a trend towards high by weighing medium-high threats and medium-high threats.” high vulnerability equally.”
Faced with the risks of terrorist financing and money laundering, supervised financial institutions must now identify and implement the necessary mitigation measures, the regulator emphasizes.
Measures should include raising employee awareness of the types and indicators of money laundering suspicions, providing regular updates to the governing body on the financial institution’s exposure to money laundering risks, and establishing policies, procedures and clear internal processes to facilitate the identification and dissemination of information about possible activities. related to money laundering.
Prevention tools must also be adequate, “making them more robust in monitoring clients and transactions proportionate to the money laundering risk and calibrating risk matrices so that a client’s risk profile can be determined.”
In addition, “financial institutions are also required to conduct internal risk assessments to ensure they are aware of the risk to which they are exposed.”
The final result of the industry risk assessment was presented on June 7 in Luanda at a meeting attended by regulatory and supervisory authorities, the financial information unit, the courts, the Attorney General’s Office, criminal investigation authorities and financial institutions.