From: Ghana | Joy News TV          Last Updated: February 12, 2012, 1:00 am

http://business.myjoyonline.com/pages/news/201202/81401.php

The National Insurance Commission in collaboration with the Financial Intelligence Centre has launched a new set of guidelines to aid players in the insurance industry fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

With money laundering and terrorism increasingly gaining grounds in the West African sub region, analysts say it is necessary for financial institutions to put precautionary measures in place to avoid falling prey to these practices.

Speaking at the launch of the guidelines, a special advisor to the Finance Minister, Professor Newman Kusi admitted that money laundering is a worldwide problem hence the need to do more to protect the financial sector.

He thus urged insurance practitioners to abide by the Anti Money laundering guidelines stressing that “as required by the guidelines, every insurance practitioner should endeavour to have a written policy frame that will guide and enable its staff to monitor, recognise and respond adequately and appropriately to suspicious transactions”.

Prof. Kusi also pledged government’s willingness to support all sectors of the economy to unleash the potentials inherent in the nation’s economy.

“We in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning have absolute faith in the future of this economy and with commitment from our partners in the financial sector, the future is certainly bright” he said.

The Commissioner of Insurance, Nyamikeh Kyiameh, in her speech reiterated teh fact that money laundering and the financing of terrorism pose major threats to international peace and security and could destabilize Ghana’s own development and progress.

She stated that global efforts have been made to control these crimes hence the sustained regulatory pressure to improve the monitoring and surveillance system with a view to preventing, detecting and responding effectively to the threat of money laundering and terrorist financing.

The anti money laundering(AML)/ Combating Financial Terrorist (CFT) guidelines covers areas such as reporting officer designation and duties, the need to co-operate with the supervisory authority, customer due diligence, monitoring and responding to suspicious transactions, reporting requirements, record keeping and AML/CFT employee training program.

It is hoped that these guidelines would minimize the risk faced by licensed insurance practitioners from being used to launder the proceeds of crime and also provide protection against fraud and reputational and financial risk.