DUBAI/KARACHI: The United Arab Emirates’ central bank is investigating Pakistan’s largest bank to ascertain if it violated anti-money- laundering and terrorism-financing laws, the regulator said on Wednesday.
The inquiry comes as Pakistan is under examination by a Paris unit of the Financial Action Task Force, a global financial watchdog, for not adequately complying with global regulations on money laundering and terrorism financing.
The FATF will decide this week whether to put Pakistan on a list of countries on non-compliant with global financial regulations, which would carry significant sanctions.
The Central Bank of UAE (CBAUE) said in a statement on Wednesday that it was in “close contact” with Pakistan’s banking regulator to verify reported irregularities of a Pakistani bank in UAE.
A spokeswoman of the CBAUE confirmed to Reuters that the statement referred to Habib Bank Ltd. (HBL), Pakistan’s largest bank.
The bank, which is largely owned by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development and Pakistan government, had total assets of 3.1 trillion Pakistani rupees ($20.1 billion) at the end of September 2019.
The statement by the UAE banking regulator added it “will take appropriate regulatory action once we have verified the findings reported in the media to confirm if there was any violation of UAE’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combat of Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) laws and procedures.”
In a report last week, Bloomberg said that Pakistan’s banking regulator in 2018 had found irregularities in HBL’s UAE operations and dealings with politically exposed clients.
HBL responded to that report by admitting that a “few weaknesses” were identified in 2017 in its UAE operations that contravened its processes and standards.
“We have transformed our control and compliance process to ensure that they are in line with international standards,” an HBL statement said.
The State Bank of Pakistan, the country’s banking regulator, did not immediately respond to queries by Reuters on its communication with UAE regulator.
HBL also faced action in the United States in 2017 when the New York State Department of Financial Services said it was seeking to fine HBL up to $630 million for “grave” compliance failures on anti-money laundering and sanctions rules. The bank agreed to pay $225 million to settle enforcement action.
In a filing to Pakistan Stock Exchange on Monday the bank said it would complete a “voluntary closure” of its US operations in coordination with the New York State banking regulator on or before March 31.
UAE regulator to investigate Pakistan bank for money laundering
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UAE regulator to investigate Pakistan bank for money laundering
- The inquiry comes as Pakistan is under scrutiny by global anti-money laundering watchdog in Paris
- Pakistan’s central bank highlighted irregularities in HBL’s UAE operations in its 2019 report
Russia says the West should stop claiming Moscow and Beijing threaten Greenland
- “First they came up with the idea that there were some aggressors,” Zakharova said
- “We stand in solidarity with China’s position”
MOSCOW: Russia said on Thursday that its was unacceptable for the West to keep claiming that Russia and China threatened Greenland, and said the crisis over the territory showed the inconsistency of the West’s implementation of the so-called “rules-based” order.
“First they came up with the idea that there were some aggressors, and then that they were ready to protect someone from these aggressors,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said of the West’s actions on Greenland.
The current situation, she said, “demonstrates with particular acuteness the inconsistency of the so-called ‘rules-based world order’ being built by the West,” Zakharova said.
“We stand in solidarity with China’s position on the unacceptability of references to certain activity of Russia and China around Greenland as a reason for the current escalation,” Zakharova said.
