On May 15, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) published a report summarising the results of the national risk assessment on money laundering and terrorist financing in Vietnam in the period of 20122017. According to the report, after considering the current trend and techniques of money laundering, money and property created by criminals and the risk of sectors in the economy abused on money laundering, the risk of money laundering is moderate.
After considering the national vulnerability and vulnerability of the sectors to money laundering, it has been concluded that the money laundering vulnerability is high. Based on the national risk assessment chart, Vietnam’s money laundering risk is high.
Regarding specific areas, the risk of money laundering is assessed at a high level in the fields of banking and real estate; particularly the unofficial money transfer channel is also rated at a high level.
Meanwhile, the risk in securities, remittances and casinos is moderate; the areas of auditing, accounting, lawyers and notarisation are assessed as low-risk.
In the banking sector, with a high-risk assessment of money laundering, the report said that this sector accounted for nearly 90 percent of all suspicious transaction reports (STR) sent to the Department of anti-money laundering.
“Although it must be affirmed that not all illicit revenues are committed by criminals to the money laundering cycle, but this also proves, compared to other sectors of the economy, the possibility that criminals select a banking system to legalise illicit revenues to turn “dirty money” into “clean money” is higher, “the report said.
Based on the past cases that have been investigated for money laundering crimes recently and data on STR of the Anti-Money Laundering Department, the risk of money laundering in the banking sector might be mainly originated from the crime of embezzlement (crimes are mainly related to people with high positions and powers), gambling and tax evasion.
Accordingly, in order to conceal the proceeds, criminals often use bank accounts under the name of another person to receive and transfer illegal funds.
With real estate, which is attracting a lot of high-value investment funds, real estate purchases and transfer can be done in cash or by bank transfer and not through any real estate trading floor so that it is very difficult for authorities to investigate and determine the origin of money.
In addition, for the cases of embezzlement over the past period, and the gambling cases of billions of dongs in investigation for money laundering, the assets obtained are related to real estate.
For money laundering, criminals often ask family members to buy, transfer and donate real estate.
With relevant analysis, the report has concluded that the risk of money laundering in real estate is relatively high.
For the securities sector, in the period from 2012 to September 2017, according to the statistics of investigating, prosecuting and judging agencies for money laundering criminals, no money laundering cases were investigated, prosecuted or trial.
From 2015 until now, management agencies have conducted coordination, verification and dealing with seven cases of transactions with suspicious signs related to money laundering in the field of securities. The regulator has received two suspicious transaction reports, received from the securities company.
Regarding the identification of customers, according to regulations, securities companies and fund management companies are not allowed to trade cash with customers. Customers of securities companies and fund management companies must pay, withdraw and transfer money through commercial banks. Therefore, securities companies and fund management companies face some difficulties in identifying suspicious transactions because they are not aware of whether the person performing the transaction to deposit, withdraw or transfer money is the holder of securities or not.
“This shows that the level of compliance with the law on the prevention of money laundering in the securities sector is not commensurate with the risks that this sector may encounter,” the report said.
And based on the above analysis, the report argues that the risk of money laundering on the securities sector is average.
