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Nepal to ink MoU on finance trading
- anti-money laundering
KATHMANDU, JUL 04 -
Nepal is to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Mongolia, Thailand and Malaysia on financial information exchange to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing at the 13th annual general meeting of the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) to be held in Singapore from July 12-16. Nepal is a member of the APG.
With the signing of the MoU, the two sides will have to provide each other financial information about persons suspected to have been involved in money laundering. Nepal has already signed such agreements with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Dharma Raj Sapkota, head of the Financial Information Unit at Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), said that with the MoU, both sides would be required to exchange information on bank balance, investment in real estate, shares and other areas of those suspected of money laundering and terrorist financing.
"We can freeze the assets of such suspects and later seize and transfer the assets of the persons involved in money laundering to the authorities of the other country if found guilty," he said.
According to him, Nepal and India have also moved closer to signing an MoU within a few months. "Nepal has also proposed to Hong Kong to sign an MoU given the recent revelation of alleged capital flight to Hong Kong in the name of importing wool which might be money laundering as well," said Sapkota.
Nepal will present its position with regard to compliance on anti-money laundering (AML) and combating financing on terrorism (CFT) measures during the AGM as well. Nepal has already enforced anti-money laundering laws and enforced them in several areas including government agencies, banks and financial institutions, insurance companies, money transfer agencies, money changers, cooperatives and casinos already. There will be a separate discussion on Nepal with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the APG and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) formed by G20 to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing, according to Sapkota. The FATF on June 25 highlighted Nepal's deficiencies with regard to compliance of AML/CFT again including failure to adequately criminalise money laundering and terrorist financing (2) establish and implement adequate procedures to identify and freeze terrorist assets (3) implement adequate procedures for the confiscation of funds related to money laundering and (4) enact and implement appropriate mutual legal assistance legislation.
"The FATF encourages Nepal to address its remaining deficiencies and continue the process of implementing its action plan," FATF said on its website.
The FATF has also highlighted measures taken by Nepal including high-level political commitment made last February to work with the FATF and APG to address its strategic AML/CFT deficiencies.
The finance minister had pledged in February that Nepal would ratify the four UN conventions related to anti-money laundering and corruption within the current fiscal year and bring the Mutual Assistance Act within 2010 which will give recognition to evidence obtained from abroad to present at court.
Likewise, the finance minister had pledged that the government would set up a web-based connection between the agency that looks into money laundering activities (the Financial Information Unit of Nepal Rastra Bank) and the agencies (banks and land revenue offices) that will provide details about suspicious transactions within 2010.
It had earlier blamed Nepal of posing a risk to the international financial system by failing to
correct its financial regime to curb money laundering and terrorism financing.
Posted on: 2010-07-05 08:38
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