Ninh Binh, April 17, 2026, and Ho Chi Minh City, April 23, 2026, Wildlife Conservation Society, Viet Nam Program (WCS Viet Nam), in collaboration with the Banking Academy of Viet Nam (BAV), organized two training courses on “Detecting and reporting suspicious transactions related to illegal wildlife trade" for financial institutions in Viet Nam.
66 participants, including representatives of the State Bank of Viet Nam, 08 regional branches of the State Bank, and officials from 18 commercial banks and four non-bank financial service providers in Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City attended the training.
WCS introduces training expectation setting, Ninh Binh, April 2026
The training aimed at strengthening the capacity of financial institutions operating in Viet Nam in detecting and reporting suspicious transactions related to illegal wildlife trade (IWT) -one of the predicate offenses of money laundering, through updates on relevant legal regulations, as well as the introduction and guidance on applying the toolkit developed by WCS and the BAV.
During the training, participants were updated on Viet Nam’s legal framework on anti-money laundering; explored financial investigation approaches in IWT cases through case studies; and were introduced to a toolkit for detecting and reporting IWT-related suspicious transactions tailored for financial institutions.
Participants discuss with experts, Ho Chi Minh City, April 2026.
Through scenario-based exercises and group discussions aligned with their respective functional roles, participants practiced key techniques in financial flow analysis, applied red-flag indicators to identify and assess the risks of financial transactions, and learned the steps for preparing high-quality suspicious transaction reports.
The training was 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.