One of the leading commercial banks in Pakistan, Habib Metropolitan Bank has recently been conducting customer awareness sessions on money laundering and anti-terrorism financing.
The bank, which is known to be a specialist in trade finance, conducted these sessions at local hotels in Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar. A senior official from the State Bank of Pakistan was also present at two of these sessions to explain regulatory expectations regarding FATF developments.
As per directives of the State Bank of Pakistan, players in the banking industry seem to be working hard on improving their standards on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering Terrorism Financing (CTF) in line with those expected by international standard-setting and assessing bodies like Asia Pacific Group (APG) and Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Speakers also briefed the audience about greater documentary requirements arising due to the current geo-political environment and enhanced focus on the scrutiny of transactions by the regulators.
