SBP advises banks to root out terrorist financing

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has directed all Banks, Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) and the Microfinance Banks (MFBs) to align their existing monitoring functions/system with amendments in United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions within six months.

Through the guidelines, UNSC resolution further tightened the banks, DFIs and MFBs and advised them not to provide any banking services to proscribed (banned) entities and persons or their associated persons, as required under Anti Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT).

In this connection, the SBP on Friday issued guidelines according to the compliance of government of Pakistan’s Notifications issued under United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions.

In this regard, the paragraph 6 of the Guidelines has been amended as under:

Paragraph 6: Banks/DFIs/MFBs should not provide any banking services to proscribed entities and persons or their associated persons as required under Anti Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Regulations. For this purpose, necessary measures should be taken including but not limited to the following controls:

1. a) In case of entity accounts, it should be ensured that their beneficial owners, directors, members, trustees and authorised signatories are not linked with any proscribed entities and persons, whether under the same name or with a different name.
2. b) The association of individuals/ entities with proscribed entities and persons may be determined on the basis of appropriate screening of sanctions lists/ watch lists, publically known information or linkages on the basis of online NTN verification, government or regulatory sources, reliable media information etc.
3. c) While opening new accounts or extending services to customers, any similarity between the identifying information of the customer and that of proscribed entities and persons including national identification number, address, etc may be viewed with suspicion and properly investigated for necessary action as per requirements.
4. d) The banks/DFIs/MFBs should monitor their relationships on a continuous basis and ensure that no such relationship exists. If any such relationship is found, the same should be immediately reported to Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) and other actions be taken as per law.