Ha Noi, March 18–19, 2026, The Wildlife Conservation Society, Viet Nam Program (WCS Viet Nam) collaborated with the Banking Academy to organize a training course titled “Detecting and reporting suspicious transactions related to illegal wildlife trade” for students.
Mr. Pham Thanh Trung, Program Manager, WCS Vietnam, shared insights on the link between illegal wildlife trade and money laundering, Ha Noi, March 2026.
There were 28 students from finance, banking, accounting, and law majors at the Banking Academy attended the training. The sessions were delivered by ESG experts from MCG Management Consulting Company, anti-money laundering (AML) specialists from the Banking Academy, and experts on combating illegal wildlife trade from WCS Viet Nam.
During the training, students were introduced to key anti-money laundering (AML) and wildlife protection concepts as regulated in international standards and Viet Nam’s legislations, including money laundering risks in environmental crimes identified in the recent National Risk Assessment on money laundering (2018–2022). Sessions also highlighted the interlinkages between combating wildlife trade, AML, and compliance practices in the financial sector. A practical toolkit developed by the WCS Viet Nam and BAV to support financial institutions in detecting and reporting suspicious IWT-related transactions was also introduced to participated students. Through interactive activities, group work, and case studies, students were guided to apply the toolkit to identify red flags, detect and analyze suspicious transactions, track and map out the illicit financial flows associated with wildlife trafficking. Then students practiced developing Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) that can be submitted to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and law enforcement agencies for further investigations
Students present their group discussion, Hanoi, March 2026
After the training course, the BAV organized a field trip for students to Cuc Phuong National Park, where they visited rescue centers for endangered wildlife and rare plant species and learned about wildlife rescue operations conducted there. Through this hands-on experience, students had the opportunity to better understand the connection between illegal wildlife trade and its impacts on biodiversity, thereby gaining deeper insight into the importance of detecting and disrupting illicit financial flows in support of nature conservation.
After this event, WCS and BAV will organize training courses, and technical update meetings for financial institutions, especially commercial banks and non-bank financial service providers, to guide them using the toolkit to detect suspicious transactions and improve the quality of their reports related to IWT.
The trainings were conducted within the framework of 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, and implemented by WCS Viet Nam.