Lanka taking stern measures to deal with financial crime - Mangala

Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera speaking at a roundtable discussion on ‘Financial Regulation: Working Together to Address De-Risking,’ at CHOGM 2018 in London, yesterday.

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday speaking at a roundtable discussion on financial regulation on the sidelines of CHOGM 2018 said Sri Lanka was taking stern steps to deal with financial crime.

The discussion on ‘Financial Regulation: Working Together to Address De-Risking,’ held in London had the minister stress that as the dynamics of the finance industry and technology constantly evolve, it was essential that financial regulations remain one step ahead.

“Financial crimes had various negative fall-outs in international finance and one such was “de-risking”, the scenario of global banks selectively withdrawing from the business of correspondent banking,Minister Samaraweera said.

“This can have highly detrimental implications for banks in developing countries in particular as it can shut them out of the global financial architecture,” he said.

“Sri Lanka has long identified the risk of financial crime as a priority area, given the country’s history in battling a sophisticated terror organization. A number of measures were taken over the years such as the introduction of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2006, Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Financing Act in 2005, introduction of Financial Transaction Reporting Act in 2006 and setting up the Financial Intelligence Unit at the Central Bank,” the Minister added.

“Since November 2017, the Sri Lankan government has taken a number of measures to enhance Anti Money Laundering compliance such as introducing amendments to the Trust Ordinance, Companies Act, enactment of the Proceeds of Crimes Act, enhancing Customer Due Diligence Rules, and regulations on targeted financial sanctions on proliferation,” the Minister said..

“The challenge for countries like Sri Lanka is how to ensure continued progress of financial inclusion in this context,” he said..

Minister Samaraweera further said one of the focuses of the government was to link grassroots entrepreneurs to finance and for that it was important for the Sri Lankan financial system to have robust access and engagement with the global financial architecture.

“As the financial system develops, the laws and regulations aimed at preventing financial crimes need to be updated. Sri Lanka very well understands this reality and is taking every necessary measure to keep abreast of the regulatory developments,” Minister Samaraweera said.