Ho Chi Minh city, April 08, 2023, Wildlife Conservation Society, Viet Nam Office (WCS Viet Nam) organized a luncheon with financial institutions on “Detecting and reporting illegal wildlife trade risks in financial transactions”.
Mr. Pham Thanh Trung, Program Manager of WCS Viet Nam delivered the opening speech, Ho Chi Minh City, April 2024
Representatives of the State Bank of Viet Nam Branch in Ho Chi Minh City and Tay Ninh Province, international and national commercial banks, non-bank financial institutions, education and training institutions in Law, Banking and Finance in Ho Chi Minh City attended the luncheon.
At the luncheon, participants were updated on the situation of illegal wildlife trade (IWT) and associated financial risks in Viet Nam, new and revised legal provisions related to money laundering risk assessment and suspicious transaction reporting as regulated in the 2022 Anti-Money Laundering Law (AML Law) and its guiding documents. In particular, participants had the opportunity to learn good practices of international financial institutions in detecting and reporting IWT-related suspicious activities, and cooperation between financial institutions with the Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) and Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) in preventing and combating money laundering risks related to IWT through the sharing of representatives of the Western Union (WU)Payments in Asia Pacific & Middle East, and United Overseas Bank (UOB) Thailand.
Mrs. Sirirut Rattanamongkolsak Head of Anti Financial Crimes, Investigation and Intelligence, United Overseas Bank's sharing, Ho Chi Minh City, April 2024
Taking into consideration of the context that Viet Nam has been added to the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) grey list (jurisdictions under increased monitoring) since June 2023, participants and experts from WU and UOB Thailand discussed solutions to strengthen the role, participation, and coordination among financial institutions, FIUs, LEAs and conservation NGOs in preventing and combating IWT by following the illicit financial flows. One of the effective models discussed is the establishment of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for information sharing.
Mr. Nick Mays Senior Manager, Global Compliance, Asia Pacific & Middle East - Financial Intelligence Unit, Office of Law Enforcement & External Partnerships, Western Union Payments's sharing, Ho Chi Minh City, April 2024
WCS Viet Nam also acknowledged the participants’ initiatives to enhance the role of financial institutions in combating wildlife trafficking and will continue gathering information and develop IWT red flags and risk indicators in financial and banking transactions to share with the financial institutions.
The luncheon was conducted within the framework of the project “Improving the effectiveness of multi-sectoral collaboration in combating illegal wildlife trade from Africa to and within Viet Nam” implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU); and the project “Scaling up efforts to counter wildlife trafficking in Viet Nam funded by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), United States Department of State.