THE Bank South Pacific Financial Group Ltd (BSP) has always complied with its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) obligations, says chairman Sir Kostas Constantinou. He mentioned this in a market release yesterday in response to a letter BSP received from the Bank of PNG’s Financial Analysis and Supervision Unit (Fasu) concerning anti-money laundering (AML) allegations made against the BSP. Fasu took regulatory action against BSP for allegedly not complying with certain matters. BSP was:
Fasu had conducted on-site inspections of the BSP on Oct 23, 2019 and last June. BSP was issued a show-cause notice to explain why Fasu should not impose enforcement actions.
BSP responded to the notice on April 6. Fasu director Benny Popoitai said in a statement: “The nature of BSP’s non-compliance is serious enough for Fasu to have issued an infringement notice. “However, Fasu has chosen to apply a formal warning instead making this the first occasion of regulatory action undertaken by Fasu against BSP. “Consistent with the application of Section 100 of the Act, Fasu believes that there are reasonable grounds to determine that BSP has engaged in conduct that contravened requirements of the Act.” Popitai warned that Fasu expected BSP to cooperate with the regulatory measures imposed. “If BSP, or persons within BSP, continue to engage in conduct that constitutes offences against the AML/CTF Act, civil or criminal enforcement action may be taken.” In response yesterday, Sir Kostas said BSP had “at all times complied with its AML/CTF obligations”. Penalties for breaching the legislation include fines of up to K500,000, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or both for each offence, or a fine of K1mil for a corporate body, for each offence. Meanwhile, Prime Minister James Marape came to the defence of BSP yesterday saying it had always conducted itself well. “What happens in someone’s account is not BSP’s doing every time,” he said. “BSP is there to conduct banking for our country – the biggest bank (which provides) the government and the people services.” He said BSP was always strict in conducting business. “They ask me (questions). They don’t care if am the prime minister. “They have regulations. “In respect to money laundering, BSP also watches against this. So I don’t question BSP’s credibility.” But Marape said he was not privy to the details of the report by Fasu. “I have asked Fasu and the Bank of PNG on this one (report). “I have also asked BSP to come and meet with me to see what has been reported.” Statement / The National/ PNG Business News Next : Bank Of PNG Recommends Refinancing, Says Vele Comments are closed.
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