Politically Exposed Persons: A Guide on Preventive Measures for the Banking Sector (Stolen Asset Recovery (Star) Initiative)

In recent years, revelations of grand corruption and the plunder of state assets have led to greater scrutiny of financial relationships with politically exposed persons (PEPs) - senior government officials, family members and close associates - and potential money laundering risks associated with these customers. Notwithstanding the efforts by many financial institutions and regulatory authorities to prevent corrupt PEPs from entering and using the financial system to launder the proceeds of corruption, there has been an overall failure in the effective implementation of risk-based systems to detect corruption proceeds. Politically Exposed Persons: A Guide to Strengthening Preventive Measures for the Banking Sector is designed to help banks and regulatory authorities address the risks posed by PEPs and prevent corrupt PEPs from abusing domestic and international financial systems to launder the proceeds of corruption. The book provides recommendations and good practices aimed at improving compliance with international standards and increasing supervisory effectiveness. Implementation of an effective PEP regime is a critical component of the prevention and detection of transfers of proceeds of crime and, therefore, ultimately in the process of recovering these proceeds of corruption. The United Nations Convention against Corruption and the Financial Action Task Force Forty Recommendations on Money Laundering require countries to ensure that financial institutions implement systems to identify and verify PEP customers, enhance due diligence procedures at account opening, and provide ongoing monitoring of transactions. Politically Exposed Persons: A Guide to Strengthening Preventive Measures for the Banking Sector will be an important tool for individuals, governments, financial and private sector companies, and international organizations involved in developing and implementing standards aimed at fighting corruption and money laundering, and trying to recover stolen assets and the proceeds of corruption. In recent years, the revelations of grand corruption and the scale of the plunder of state assets has led to greater scrutiny of financial relationships with politically exposed persons (PEPs) and potential money laundering risks associated with these customers. PEPs-individuals who are or have been entrusted with prominent public functions, their family members, and close associates-represent a greater risk because of the possibility that such individuals may abuse their position and influence to accept and extort bribes and misappropriate state assets. Implementation of an effective PEPs regime is a critical component of the prevention and detection of transfers of proceeds of crime and therefore ultimately in the process of recovering these proceeds of corruption. The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Forty Recommendations on Money Laundering require countries to ensure that financial institutions implement systems for identification and verification of PEP customers, enhanced due diligence procedures at account opening, and ongoing monitoring. Notwithstanding the efforts by many financial institutions and regulatory authorities to prevent corrupt PEPs from entering and using the financial system to launder the proceeds of corruption, there has been an overall failure in the effective implementation of risk based systems to detect corruption proceeds. In this context, Politically Exposed Persons-A Guide on Preventive Measures for the Banking Sector is designed to help build regimes that will facilitate the identification of corrupt PEPs and their efforts to launder money through banks. The authors identify recommendations and good practices aimed at improving compliance with international standards and increasing supervisory effectiveness. In recent years, revelations of grand corruption and the plunder of state assets have led to greater scrutiny of financial relationships with politically exposed persons (PEPs)—senior government officials and their family members and close associates. Notwithstanding the efforts by many financial institutions and regulatory authorities to prevent corrupt PEPs from entering and using the financial system to launder the proceeds of corruption, there has been an overall failure in the effective implementation of international standards on PEPs. Implementation of an effective PEP regime is a critical component in the prevention and detection of transfers of proceeds of crime and, therefore, ultimately in the process of recovering them. 'Politically Exposed Persons: Preventive Measures for the Banking Sector' is designed to help banks and regulatory authorities address the risks posed by PEPs and prevent corrupt PEPs from using domestic and international financial systems to launder the proceeds of corruption. The book provides recommendations and good practices aimed at improving compliance with international standards and increasing supervisory effectiveness. It is an important tool for individuals, governments, financial and private sector companies, and international organizations involved in developing and implementing standards aimed at fighting corruption and money laundering, and trying to recover stolen assets and the proceeds of corruption.

The paper is focused on the banking sector, not on other financial and nonfinancial sectors vulnerable to the laundering of corrupt funds. These other sectors may find the recommendations and good practices provided in this paper relevant, but should analyze the findings of this paper in light of their particular circumstances and specific features. The paper includes a number of practical tools to help guide banks, regulators, and other public authorities. The paper is organized into four major parts: the remainder of this part (part one) sets out some of the main observations and trends in politically exposed person (PEPs) compliance and an analysis of the principal reasons for poor compliance and overall ineffectiveness of systems to detect and monitor PEPs. Part two focuses on the implementation of PEP measures by regulatory authorities and banks. Part three reviews the roles of the public authorities that are primarily involved in preventing abuse by corrupt PEPs. These authorities include the regulatory authority, which is responsible for providing guidance to banks and enforcing compliance, as well as the financial intelligence unit (FIU), which has a role in the context of suspicious transaction reports (STRs) on PEPs. Finally, part four considers some of the cross-cutting issues national cooperation, training, and resources that must be addressed by all stakeholders.