Standard Chartered conducts workshop for Compliance Officers of local banks

Standard Chartered Bank recently held a Training Workshop for the Compliance Officers of the banking industry in Sri Lanka on the theme ‘Changes to the Global Landscape on Anti Money Laundering (AML) – Challenges for Compliance Officers’. This was held at Hotel Taj Samudra and conducted by the bank’s Head of Compliance Training for India and South Asia, Mr. P. Ananthakrishnan.

The session was held in collaboration with the Association of Compliance Officers of Banks, Sri Lanka and was attended by the members of the association. Officers from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Department of Bank Supervision of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka were also invited by Standard Chartered Bank and were present for the workshop.

Gayani Godellawatta, Head of Compliance, Standard Chartered Bank, said “We are extremely conscious of the need for the banking industry to stay ahead of the curve on the illegal modus operandi adopted by money launderers, and thought to share our expertise with our colleagues in the industry so that we may all be a force to reckon with to thwart these illegal activities.”

Ananthakrishnan, a regional trainer for Standard Chartered Bank, has over 30 years of banking experience including 8 years in Compliance. He has served as the Head of Compliance and the Country Money Laundering Prevention Officer for Standard Chartered Bank in India. During his presentation, Ananthakrishnan gave an excellent overview of the recent developments in the AML area globally including the significance of recent changes to the Financial Actions Task Force (FATF) recommendations. He also extensively covered Suspicious Transactions Reporting (STR) including issues and challenges for banks in this area and what banks need to do to ensure that the STR process is effective.

The workshop also addressed the area of Trade Based money laundering and the various methods through which money laundering could be carried out and how such money laundering could be detected. A Case Study illustration on Trade based money laundering was very useful to participants in understanding the manner in which such money laundering transactions could be accomplished, and to identify triggers for such   mala fide activities in order to eliminate the banks being used as channels for money laundering.

Participants in the training workshop appreciated the key inputs and reiterated that such workshops were very critical in enhancing knowledge and skills in such critical areas as Anti Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing.

Ravi Duvvuru, Regional Head of Compliance, India and South Asia of Standard Chartered Bank, who graced the workshop with his presence, commented “We cannot emphasise enough the need for Compliance Officers to stay ahead of and be able to detect the advanced methodologies adopted by launderers, in order to prevent the use of the banking system for purposes of laundering illegal money”.