On June 28, 2018, at the headquarters of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), the SBV organized a conference on reviewing the five-year implementation of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering. The Conference was under the chairmanship of Mr. Pham Huyen Anh, Deputy Chief Inspector of the Banking Supervision Agency and Head of the Permanent Support Task Force to the Steering Board for the Prevention of Money Laundering.
Also attending the conference were the members of the Permanent Support Task Force, representatives from the relevant ministries and agencies, representatives from the SBV entities, a number of reporting recipients of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Justice…
A snapshot of the conference
In his opening speech, Mr. Pham Huyen Anh, Deputy Chief Inspector of the Banking Supervision Agency and Head of the Permanent Support Task Force to the Steering Board for the Prevention of Money Laundering, stated that after five-year implementation of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering, Vietnam has obtained encouraging results in the task of preventing money laundering, contributing to the prevention of and fight against crimes in general and the crimes of money laundering and terrorism financing in particular, as well as contributing to the transparency of the financial system, the enhancement of payment activities and international trade, thereby strengthening the economic growth and the social safety and security. However, after five years of implementation, the Law on Anti-Money Laundering and the guiding documents still have several limitations and need to be amended and supplemented. Therefore, this Conference was organized in order to review the five year implementation of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering, providing an objective assessment of the achievements and limitations in the process of implementing the Law on Anti-Money Laundering and the guiding documents, thereby giving recommendations of amendments and supplements to the Law.
As the lead Government agency responsible for the state administration against money laundering, and the focal agency in the Government for the submission of recommendations on the amendments and supplements to the Law on Anti-Money Laundering, the SBV took note of all comments and suggestions from the participants to finalize the report on five year implementation review of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering, then implementing necessary procedures of submitting to the Government and the National Assembly the proposal for revising the Law on Anti-Money Laundering.
Mr. Nguyen Van Ngoc reports on the 5-year implementation of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering
Results of five year implementation of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering
Delivering the report on 5-year implementation review of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering, Mr. Nguyen Van Ngoc, Director General of Anti-Money Laundering Department, emphasized that the promulgation of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering has contributed to creating a relatively complete and comprehensive legal framework for implementing the task of anti-money laundering in a consistent and effective manner in Vietnam. After the issuance of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering, the Government, the Prime Minister and the SBV have duly promulgated guiding legal documents for the implementation of the regulations of the Law. In addition, the relevant ministries and agencies have also formulated and issued many guiding documents to instruct their reporting recipients to comply with the provisions of the Law.
The Law on Anti-Money Laundering has enhanced the implementation of the reporting regime regarding anti-money laundering, created the basis for international cooperation; met the requirements of the integration in compliance with international practices, improved the prestige and the attraction of foreign investment, facilitated for Vietnamese individuals and institutions to do business abroad.
Thanks to the issuance of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering and the guiding documents, Vietnam has been assessed to have made encouraging progresses in the task of anti-money laundering by the international organizations. This puts positive impacts on the politics, the society and the economic growth in Vietnam.
Mr. Tran Tuan Anh, representing the Financial, Monetary and Investment Security Department, the General Department of Security, Ministry of Public Security presents at the Conference
The amendments and supplements of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering
Although the Law on Anti-Money Laundering has made great contributions to the formulation of a legal framework for the prevention of money laundering, it has also revealed several shortcomings and needs to be amended and supplemented, particularly as follows: there are no provisions for some areas with potential risks regarding anti-money laundering; some provisions of the Law have not met the new international standards on money laundering prevention; there are no specific regulations and guidelines for the implementation of the Law on Anti- Money Laundering in the fields of real estate, legal solicitation, notarial services, accounting, auditing, non-profit organizations, etc.
At the conference, the participants also presented and discussed the following contents: Results of the money laundering prevention in Vietnam during 2013-2018 period; the relationship between money laundering and other crimes; the difficulties and obstacles in the prevention of money laundering and the investigation of money laundering crimes; the coordination of the ministries and agencies in money laundering prevention; some solutions to improve the quality of money laundering prevention in the coming time.
Le Hang