On May 17, 2019, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) organized a video conference to disseminate the results of Vietnam’s National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, and the Action Plan to address the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing in the 2019-2020 period. The conference was chaired by SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Kim Anh.
Also attending the conference were representatives from the relevant ministries, agencies, the SBV entities, representatives from the reporting institutions and the associations in the fields of banking, securities, real estate, insurance…
The National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (NRA) was assigned by the Prime Minister in the National Action Plan on the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing in the 2015-2020 period, promulgated as attachment to Decision No. 2112/QD-TTg dated November 25, 2014, in which the SBV was assigned to conduct an assessment of the risks of money laundering, while the Ministry of Public Security was tasked to conduct an assessment on the risks of terrorist financing.
In his opening speech, SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Kim Anh emphasized that implementing the directions of the Prime Minister, the SBV has published the NRA Summary Report on the E-Portal of the SBV (both English and Vietnamese versions) for domestic and foreign organizations to study. The SBV has also sent official notes with the NRA Report attached to the credit institutions, the foreign bank branches operating in Vietnam, the agents for receiving, paying in foreign currencies, the payment intermediaries,… to require the implementation of risk assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing; periodically review, re-evaluate and propose measures to minimize the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing in accordance with the size and the nature of operations of their units.
Deputy Governor Nguyen Kim Anh speaks at the Conference
At the same time, the SBV has sent official notes to the relevant ministries and agencies requesting the implementation of their tasks as assigned in Decision No. 474/QD-TTg, including the dissemination of the NRA Report (relevant parts); formulate plans and organize the implementation of the post-NRA Action Plan; request the reporting entities under the management of the ministries and agencies to carry out risk assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing; periodically review, re-evaluate and propose measures to minimize the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing in accordance with the scope and the nature of operations of the reporting entities.
The SBV Governor said that this was the first time Vietnam has conducted a national risk assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing. With the information, data and cases collected through the coordination mechanism in the country and the national database system, the survey questionnaires, the open research and information (newspaper, magazines, internet); through the WB's toolkit, the "Risks" of money laundering and terrorist financing were identified, as well as the "Vulnerability" in the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing in Vietnam. The NRA for the 2012-2017 period identifies that money laundering risks at the national level are rated MEDIUM HIGH, while the terrorist financing risks in Vietnam are assessed as LOW. The report also specifies the money laudering risks for the different economic sectors.
At the Conference, the participants discussed following contents: the necessity and process of implementing the national risk assessment on money laundering and terrorist financing of Vietnam; Results of assessing the risks of national and sectoral money laundering, terrorist financing; Action plan to address the risks in the banking sector.
Mr. Pham Gia Bao, Deputy Director General of Anti Money Laundering Department, speaks at the Conference
With the participation of representatives from many sectors, industries, the Conference was able to disseminate useful information about the main results of the National Risk Assessment, through which raising the awareness of the relevent ministries and agencies, As well as the economic sectors concerning the prevention and combat of money laundering and terrorist financing, with a view to effectively implementing the Action Plan to address the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing in the period of 2019-2020.
Speaking at the conclusion of the Conference, Deputy Governor Nguyen Kim Anh said that the Conference had successfully accomlished the set-out objectives, contributing to the implementation of Decision No. 474 / QD-TTg dated April 30, 2019 of the Prime Minister.
SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Kim Anh also stressed that the conduct of the National Risk Assessment on money laundering and terrorist financing is the first requirement (Recommendation 1) in the 40 FATF Recommendations and is a compulsory requirement for the countries when implementing the mechanism of anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing. The results of the National Risk Assessment will be an important component for the multilateral evaluation of the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) on money laundering against Vietnam's anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing mechanisms in year 2019. The results of the assessment are also an important source of information for developing a technical compliance report and an effectiveness assessment of Vietnam.
The Deputy Governor requested the relevant ministries and agencies to urgently develop and implement their own post-NRA Action Plans on the substances related to the areas of their responsibilities. At the same time, the ministries and agencies are also required to take measures to disseminate the NRA results to the reporting entities under their management, and send a written request to those reporting entities under their management to request them to conduct their own risk assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing. Besides, the ministries and agencies should collect and consolidate the implementation results, and promptly send them to the SBV to further improve the report on the effectiveness of the anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing mechanisms to be sent to the APG in early July, 2019, as well as to serve for the justification process of the report contents submitted to the APG at the request of the review team. Furthermore, the ministries and agencies need to coordinate with the associations to organize extensive communication of the implementation of the relevant contents in Decision 474 of the Prime Minister in their areas of responsibility.
Also at the Conference, the SBV Deputy Governor requested the Banking Supervision Agency to take note of the opinions of the participants at the Conference, promptly finalize the NRA Report and send to the relevant SBV units for comments on the draft Action Plan to address the risks in the banking sector, submit to the Governor for signing; to take the lead and coordinate with the relevant Departments, and the SBV branches in the provinces and cities in the implementation of the assigned tasks in line with the set-out schedule; to act as the focal point in advising the SBV to coordinate with the relevant ministries and agencies to implement the actions as assigned by Decision No. 474; act as the focal point in urging the relevant organizations to report on their implementation of the assigned tasks in the Action Plan after being approved by the Governor.
The relevant entities under the SBV and the SBV branches in the provinces and cities are requested to urgently provide their comments on the draft Action Plan; actively implement the tasks assigned in the Action Plan upon being approved by the Governor.
Regarding the reporting organizations, the Deputy Governor requested that the reporting entities (not only in the banking sector but also in other fields) to proactively access the SBV's Portal for information on the National Risk Assessment results, and conduct their own risk assessments of money laundering and terrorist financing at their entities, and take measures to mitigate the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing identified through the assessment in line with the size and nature of their units’ operations.
Le Hang