Bank Boss Wants Partnership To Tackle Fraud

The Group Managing Di
rector / Chief Executive Officer, Access Bank Plc, Mr Herbert Wigwe has called for greater collaboration among deposit money banks in the country in order to tackle the rising incidence of fraud in the sector.
Mr Wigwe stated this in an address presented at a stakeholders’s workshop on anti-fraud and compliance tagged: (Combating fraud and money laundering – the need for collaboration amongst stakeholders) organised by the bank in Lagos.
The workshop was part of events lined up to mark the bank’s compliance and anti fraud awareness week.
According to the Access Bank boss, banking and financial services play a vital role in any economy. They spawn growth, create investment opportunities, facilitate the creation of jobs and generally drive economics.
However, he stressed that the sector is susceptible to abuse, noting that the banking sector can be used to launder illegal proceeds of criminal and terrorist organisations, serve as fraud and money laundering channels, particularly when the transactions are complex.
“These crimes have had adverse impact on our national development and especially on financial system including reputational damage to the image of the country, loss of foreign direct investment, poor infrastructural development, dwindling confidence and distortions in our political as well as financial systems amongst others,” he said.
Wige noted that globally punitive measures such as times and sanctions had been meted out against financial institutions for failure to adhere to regulatory guidelines and non compliance with standards as set by regulations.
The year 2012, saw leading banks in the spotlight accused of negligently or willfully breaking anti-money laundering  (AML) rules or international  economic sanctions.
Standard Chartered Bank, accused of breaches of US Sanction on Iran by the New York Department of Financial Services was forced to pay a $340 million settlement HSBC, accused of over looking momeny laundering from Mexico into the US predicted in November that the total fines could be more than $1.5 billion among others.