Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) asked banks to intensify surveillance against money laundering activities in their clients' accounts.
The regulator maintained they should pay more attention to suspicious activities on accounts of politicians and senior government officials, Non-Governmental Organisations and cash-intensive businesses such as supermarkets, liquor stores and car dealership.
Additionally, other accounts which were put on the spot are those operated by professional service providers, foreigners, casinos, real estate dealers and dealers in precious metals.
The regulator ordered banks to formulate a profile of account holders and indicate the risk they pose as channels of money laundering and terrorist financing.
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Banks will be required to appoint a money laundering reporting officer who will prepare a worksheet on customers noting down the customer type, risk rating, rationale, mitigation/ controls, scores, weights used and the residual risk.
They will draw up a detailed analysis of the number of domestic and international funds transfers, types of customers, geographic locations of the bank’s business area and customer transactions and will report to the CBK yearly from December 31.
"Suspicious transactions such as those taking place significantly far from the location of the institution, movement of accounts to different institutions as well as the unexplained movement of money between institutions in various geographical locations would have to be tracked and reported," the CBK stated.
CBK stated that the new guidelines on anti-money laundering would inform resource allocation for various risk areas and policies to be put in place.
The circular from CBK read: "Certain customers and entities may pose risk depending on the nature of their business, the occupation of the customer, the nature of the anticipated transaction activity and as prescribed under FATF (Financial Action Task Force’s) standards."
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Forex bureaus and money transmitters will also be placed under the microscope by the Central bank.
