I had the opportunity to participate in the 10th edition of the Africa Regional Correspondent Banking Academy organised by Standard Chartered Bank, that came off at Hyatt Regency, Johannesburg, South Africa on the 4th and 5th July 2019.
The 2-day workshop brought together 33 Banks from 13 African countries with over 60 participants. The programme was also attended by representatives from International Monetary Fund (IMF), African Development Bank (AfDB) and International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The workshop was part of the bank’s efforts to equip and provide thought leadership in corresponding banking, tackling the key risk, new evolving and emerging trends, including the US-China trade wars and how they are impacting sanctions.
Delivering the welcome address, the Chief Executive Officer for South and Southern Africa at Standard Chartered Bank, Kwaku Bedu-Addo highlighted the importance for Banks on the continent to take correspondent banking seriously, de-risk and improve on surveillance which must be a collective effort of the banks in the Africa sub-region. Senior Financial Sector Expert at IMF, Franscisco R. Figueroa stressed the need for African banks to address the concerns of correspondent banking to ensure a sound financial system, and that countries need to update their legal and supervisory framework.
He further indicated that regulators must establish a clear criterion for risk assessment and continue the dialogue with the private sector. He mentioned the need for multinationals to identify robust risk frameworks and strengthen supervision to foster trust.
In setting the scene on the emerging risks in correspondent banking, the Global Co-Head, Financial Crime Compliance at Standard Chartered, Patricia Suvillivan underscored the importance of investing in technology to manage such risk and added that the conduct and culture of banks is the function of their risk framework.
She mentioned that there are high numbers of trafficking in the United States of America for shell companies and in Southern Africa, the huge investment inflows will be a catalyst for financial crime. She also emphasised the need for Banks partnering Fintechs to understand and put in place a robust risk framework to monitor transactions for underlying clients.
She also encouraged compliance department of banks to review the Wolfsberg Group questionnaire which was developed by 13 banks globally that has become an important element in correspondent banking and look out for the new improvements in Wolfsberg which includes capacity building for banks. Discussion on Global Regulatory Environment- Evolution and Revolution
In a presentation on how to modernize the fight […]