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
https://arab.news/vayat
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
TikTok finalizes deal to form new American entity
TikTok has finalized a deal to create a new American entity, avoiding the looming threat of a ban in the United States that has been in discussion for years.
The social video platform company signed agreements with major investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX to form the new TikTok US joint venture. The new version will operate under “defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurances for US users,” the company said in a statement Thursday. American TikTok users can continue using the same app.
Adam Presser, who previously worked as TikTok’s head of operations and trust and safety, will lead the new venture as its CEO. He will work alongside a seven-member, majority-American board of directors that includes TikTok’s CEO Shou Chew.
The deal marks the end of years of uncertainty about the fate of the popular video-sharing platform in the United States. After wide bipartisan majorities in Congress passed — and President Joe Biden signed — a law that would ban TikTok in the US if it did not find a new owner in the place of China’s ByteDance, the platform was set to go dark on the law’s January 2025 deadline. For a several hours, it did. But on his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep it running while his administration sought an agreement for the sale of the company.
In addition to an emphasis on data protection, with US user data being stored locally in a system run by Oracle, the joint venture will also focus on TikTok’s algorithm. The content recommendation formula, which feeds users specific videos tailored to their preferences and interests, will be retrained, tested and updated on US user data, the company said in its announcement.
Oracle, Silver Lake and the Emirati investment firm MGX are the three managing investors, who each hold a 15 percent share. Other investors include the investment firm of Michael Dell, the billionaire founder of Dell Technologies. ByteDance retains 19.9 percent of the joint venture.
