USAID/SABEQ and ABJ Host Anti-Money Laundering Workshop to Jordanian Commercial Banks
the Anti-Money Laundering Law (Law No. 46 for the year 2007) came into effect, stipulating a wide range of statutory anti-money-laundering (AML) responsibilities on commercial banks and other financial institutions in Jordan. These responsibilities include: undertaking customer due diligence to ascertain customer identity, legal status, activity, and the beneficial ownership of the customer account; the continuous follow-up of transactions that are conducted through an ongoing relationship with the customer; the prohibition against dealing with anonymous persons, persons of fictitious or anonymous names, or shell banks; and reporting immediately to the Anti-Money Laundering Unit (AMLU) on any suspicious transactions.
In order to help familiarize commercial banks with the law, and provide technical assistance in applying the law, the USAID-funded Sustainable Achievement of Business Expansion and Quality Program (SABEQ) and the Association of Banks in Jordan (ABJ) hosted a workshop yesterday targeting high ranking compliance officers and IT managers at commercial banks. The purpose of this workshop is twofold: to give participants a high-level review of the most difficult issues that commercial banks will face when implementing the Law, and to provide participants with a methodology for selecting IT solutions that will smooth the path to implementation.
Much of the discussions at the workshop centered on issues such as Customer identification, determining the criteria for customer acceptance and/or rejection, monitoring of monetary transactions, tracking customers’ behavior with AML technology, means of reporting suspicious activity, items related to records retention and staff training.
This workshop is the first in a series of work sessions that will provide training on AML to various levels of staff throughout the month of September.
The USAID-funded Sustainable Achievement of Business Expansion and Quality Program (SABEQ) is a five year broad economic development initiative implemented by BearingPoint, Inc. and a sizeable team of international and Jordanian partner firms. By both supporting improvements in the business environment and providing assistance to expand innovation and productivity in Jordanian businesses, to support the main objective of building up the private sector as a powerful engine of economic growth.
