Central Bank: A Comprehensive Five-Pronged Plan To Combat Money Laundering

Banks  Economy News – Baghdad  The Central Bank announced on Thursday that it has put in place preventative measures to combat money laundering across various sectors, while noting that there is international cooperation at the strategic level involving international organizations.

Hussein Ali, Deputy Director General of the Central Bank's Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Office, said, "The crime of money laundering is linked to the extent of the predicate crime being committed domestically, as well as to the extent of preventative measures taken by the state."

He explained that, "Based on a comprehensive assessment of the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing system, weaknesses in this system were identified, where they are being exploited, which sectors are being exploited in money laundering, and which predicate crimes are most commonly committed."

He added, "After identifying these crimes and the points where money laundering occurs, mitigating measures were put in place to address the risks of money laundering through these sectors."

He continued, "Easing measures have been put in place in the real estate sector, with real estate sales being conducted through the banking sector. Special measures have also been put in place in the gold sector, with financial institutions enforcing stricter controls on gold transfers."

He pointed out that "electronic cards, which were exploited by some unscrupulous individuals for foreign withdrawals, were used to benefit from the exchange rate or to move illegal funds. This phenomenon has been curbed and mitigated by establishing controls and updating the limits on these cards so that they are no longer useful to those who make foreign withdrawals."

He emphasized that "all these treatments are based on a real evaluation process with very precise results, which helped ensure that the treatments were specific and focused." 

He noted that "the Anti-Money Laundering Law addresses all these sectors, and there are international and national studies that identify new trends pursued by money launderers. Every time a new method is added, countries implement preventative measures for it."

He explained that "one of the methods also includes registering fake companies, and there are procedures in place for this in cooperation with the Companies Registration Department, including the process of identifying the real beneficiary of these companies, which is a very important matter to prevent the use of front companies for these companies."

He pointed out that "the Iraqi state took appropriate measures, and even when it was evaluated by the Financial Action Task Force, the evaluation result regarding the beneficial owner issue was appropriate for Iraq's situation."

He pointed out that "all measures taken are based on a risk-based approach, so that when there are risks, measures are taken to address them, while private transactions involving citizens are not complicated."

He emphasized that "all countries in the world cooperate in the field of combating money laundering through multiple channels, and in the Anti-Money Laundering Office we have counterpart offices called counterpart units." 

He explained that "information is exchanged with these units without any conditions, and without the involvement of diplomatic bodies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the intelligence service."

He stated that "there is international cooperation at the strategic level through reports and through our participation in relevant international organizations," noting that "regarding our work, we conduct an investigation, and after completing the file, it is referred to the judiciary, and we say that this person carried out a money laundering operation, and took out the funds of such-and-such state, and this money reached such-and-such a value, and is present in such-and-such accounts, and after that, there is official judicial cooperation from one judiciary to another for the purpose of seizing and confiscating the funds."  https://economy-news.net/content.php?id=55722