bKash organises ‘AML&CFT week’ to celebrate 20 year-journey of BFIU
To mark the 20 years of glorious journey of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) in Bangladesh, bKash is celebrating "AML&CFT week" to strengthen Anti-Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (AML&CFT) in MFS sector and increase customers' financial security and awareness.
The week-long programme was inaugurated by Kamal Quadir, the founder and chief executive officer of bKash at its head office Wednesday (8 June), reads a press release.
Major General Sheikh Md Monirul Islam (retd), Chief External and Corporate Affairs Officer (CECAO) and Chief Anti-Money Laundering and Compliance Officer (CAMLCO) of bKash, along with other top executives, were present at the event.
bKash always ensures AML&CFT compliance by adhering to the policies and guidelines given by BFIU.
As part of the AML&CFT week, bKash will conduct workshops, central compliance committee meeting, and several awareness activities at agent, distributor and merchant points along with customer care points.
From the beginning of its journey, bKash has been adhering to all the directives and guidelines given by Bangladesh Bank and the government and takes necessary steps to establish optimum corporate governance.
In addition, the organisation strictly follows all the BFIU-prescribed guidelines related to prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, the release adds.
Every customer account is properly verified to ensure the financial security of millions of customers.
In addition, bKash carries out various initiatives throughout the year, including workshops and awareness campaigns for customers, distribution channel partners and members of the law enforcement agencies.
Not only that, to prevent fraudulent activities and ensure emergency services, a special support team (SST) dedicatedly works 24/7.
State-of-the-art compliance practices of bKash
Customer-due-diligence (CDD) – By fulfilling CDD compliance, bKash ensures that a person's national identity (NID) card is duly verified while opening the account and the information s/he is giving is accurate and complete.
Currently, every account is opened following all the steps as prescribed in BFIU's "Circular 25" through completing the e-KYC (Electronic Know-Your-Customer).
One personal account for an individual – As per the guidelines of Bangladesh Bank, an individual can have only one personal account with any MFS organisation.
According to this, bKash ensures that a customer has only one personal bKash account.
Screening – To address the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing, not only accurate and complete customer information is collected, regular screening procedures are ensured by bKash so that no one, listed on the UN Security Council or other domestic and foreign sanctions list (terrorist list), can open a bKash account.
Monitoring field level channel partners – To make the collaboration process more dynamic among BFIU and other organisations, bKash launched "AML360", an automated solution for preventing money laundering and the financing of terrorism by monitoring real time transactions of channel partners including agents, distributors, merchants and aggregators.
