ISLAMABAD – The UAE Central Bank on Wednesday said it is in close contactwith Pakistan’s central bank and will take appropriate regulatory actionsagainst a Pakistani bank which has reportedly been founding violating themoney laundering laws.
“We are in close contact with the home regulator of the Pakistani bank, theState Bank of Pakistan, and will take appropriate regulatory action once wehave verified the findings reported in the media to confirm if there wasany violation to UAE’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combat of Financing ofTerrorism (AML/CFT) laws and procedures,” the UAE Central Bank said in thestatement on Wednesday, Khaleej Times has reported.
Earlier, State Bank of Pakistan, the country’s central bank, had said in afinding that there were “significant irregularities” in Habib Bank Ltd’s(HBL) dealing with politically exposed clients and screening sometransactions in the Middle East. The inspection was carried out as part ofthe Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
HBL admitted that weaknesses were found in its UAE operations in 2017 andlater it initiated a business transformation programme which is now largelycomplete and has put new leadership in place.
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Bloomberg reported that HBL’s UAE employees issued pay orders in their ownnames to help certain customers disguise transactions. The bank reportedlyviolated rules when opening an account of Duduzane Zuma, the son of SouthAfrica’s ex-President Jacob Zuma.
