SECP holds 20 sessions on AML/CFT

ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has held 20 awareness sessions on anti-money laundering/counter financing for terrorism (AML/CFT) in collaboration with USAID’s Financial Market Development (FMD) project.

More than 500 professionals from the securities and commodities market, insurance sector, non-banking financial institutions (NBFI) and the SECP attended these sessions in Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad, a statement said on Friday.

The sessions were designed to help representatives of financial institutions understand the risk-based approach under the AML/CFT framework, and focused on the Financial Action Task Force recommendations applicable to the financial institutions and the FATF monitoring process.

SECP Anti-Money Laundering Department Director Tariq Bakhtawar said, “With USAID FMD’s technical support, the SECP regulated sectors were briefed on AML/CFT self-assessment. This will result in laying the necessary foundations for the implementation of a risk-based approach.”

The SECP’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Regulations (June 2018) and the supplementary guidelines (issued in September 2018) shift the perspective from one-size-fits-all to the risk-based approach, enabling financial institutions to focus their resources on the high-risk customers.