Business Day (Johannesburg)
Stephen Gunnion
27 October 2004
Johannesburg — BANKS are expected to face a rising bill as they continue to implement legislation against money laundering and terrorism.
According to a KPMG study, banks globally have increased spending on combating money laundering 61% over the past three years.
In the survey 209 financial services institutions were interviewed about their spending over the past three years. More than 80% said they had invested more.
Although figures were not given for individual countries included in the survey, KPMG's Herman de Beer said SA was in line with developed countries.
"Based on our own experience, it is clear we are not as far behind as we thought," said De Beer. "If you look at international trends and where they are spending money we are right up there with them."
De Beer said spending would continue in the training of staff and implementation of IT-monitoring systems. He said the systems would allow banks to monitor bank accounts on a continuing basis to identify suspicious transactions.
"My feeling is there will be some significant spending on the IT environment," said De Beer. "They won't just rely on what is called employee identification because the system is just too big."
In SA the legislation against money laundering is being implemented through the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, which requires financial institutions to reidentify their customers. But with the first deadline for banks to reidentify high-risk individuals less than a week away, banks are battling to get all customers to comply.
De Beer said SA lagged behind countries such as the US in combating financing of terrorism.
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