13/10/2011 00:00:00

http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/business/22698-naicom-partners-imf-on-money-laundering.html

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) is  leveraging on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) technical facility to build capacity for Anti-Money Laundering/Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), the Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Fola Daniel has said.

 Daniel disclosed this at the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) National Insurance Conference in Lagos.

He said the support would help strengthen the industry’s risk-based supervision. 

The commissioner called on insurance brokers to assist underwriters in conducting due diligence on knowing more about policyholders, stressing that brokers must be armed with the legal framework for AML/CFT compliance in the country.

He said: “Money laundering is a serious crime that affects the economy as a whole, impeding the social, economic, political and cultural development of societies worldwide.

“Over the last decades, globalisation has been accompanied by growth of cross-border and national underground economies fuelled by illegal businesses. Such criminal activities as drug trafficking, human, trafficking, migrant smuggling, traffic in body organs and firearms, as well as prostitution and racketeering, have generated immense profits that boost demand for money laundering. Fighting money laundering involves combating the recycling of illegally gained proceeds and providing additional tools to detect and go after the underlying crime.”

Daniel said a central objective of supervisors and regulators is to boost confidence in the financial system and use available tools to ensure that financial institutions are not controlled by criminals or being misused for criminal purposes.

“To assist national governments to implement effective anti-money laundering programmes, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issued a list of 40 recommendations, which set out basic, universally applicable framework of measures against money laundering. The FATF has also issued out of nine special recommendations on terrorist financing as new international standards to supplement the 40 recommendations,” he added.

The commissioner called on brokers to key into the industry’s Market Development and Restructuring Initiative (MDRI), noting that the initiative is designed to ensure the continuous availability of genuine products.

“I had expected a more energetic and proactive collaboration from brokers than we are getting at the moment. For emphasis, one of the key objectives of the MDRI is the continuous availability of genuine products at the grassroots. Naturally, fake insurance products will thrive in the absence of genuine products,” he added.

President, Nigerian Council of Registered Brokers (NCRIB),  Dr Teslim Sanusi, said the council would continue to uphold the tenets of professionalism, adding that the industry can never meet the public expectations in the absence of professionalism and ethical practice.