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Money Laundering prevention

ml1Emporiki Bank - Cyprus Ltd, subsidiary of Emporiki Bank S.A., a member of Credit Agricole S.A. Group, has established a control system for the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing and for the enforcement of embargo and freezing of assets. This conforms to international rules and the provision of laws and regulations in force, and also with our Bank’s policy.

Emporiki Bank – Cyprus Ltd, as a credit and financial institution, is subject to the control of the Central Bank of Cyprus, regulators of banking and financial institutions.

The system which has been set up includes, on one hand, the obligations resulting from international rules and regulations and, on the other hand, those set up by the Cyprus domestic laws and regulations.

International obligations are as follows:

  • The 40 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations issued on February 1990, adapted and revised on June 2003, aiming to prevent the use of the international financial system for the purpose of laundering proceeds from criminal activities (see: www1.oecd.org/fatf)
  • The 9 FAFT recommendations issued on December 2001 aiming to prevent terrorism financing (see: www1.oecd.org/fatf)
  • The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s paper on “Customer Due Diligence for Banks” issued in October 2001.

National obligations

The national obligations are set out in the amendment of the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering Activities Law of December 2007, for the purpose of harmonizing Cyprus’s legislation with the Third EU Directive on the prevention of the use of financial system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing (Directive 2005/60/EC) and are related to:

  • Requiring identification of customers when entering into business relations, particularly when opening banking or saving accounts or when offering safe custody facilities (Know Your Customer policy)
  • Collecting information related to complex and unusual operations or operations without economical justification or linked to illicit operations
  • Κeeping for use as evidence all copies of all documents collected for identification purpose or for transactions justification
  • Abstention from entering into a business relationship or refusal to execute any operation for which it was not possible to obtain relevant or acceptable information
  • Suspicious transaction reporting or mandatory reporting to Cyprus Financial Intelligence Unit for the Combating of Money laundering.

Emporiki Bank – Cyprus Ltd

Our directive, based on the above obligations, as well as on the compliance control program set up by the Credit Agricole S.A. group, defines the organization and the obligations of our Compliance Unit which is dedicated to the control and management of the risks related to money laundering, terrorism financing, embargoes and freezing of assets.

In general lines, this Unit is responsible for:

  • Setting up and control of policies and procedures
  • Definition of rules for entering into a business relationship (Know Your Customer Policy)
  • Setting up of tools for transaction filtering and account monitoring
  • Handling of unusual and suspicious transactions
  • Planning and tracking of training actions
  • Direct reporting line to General Manager, to Board of Directors and to the Compliance Division of Emporiki Athens, in case of non compliant situations

Emporiki Bank - Cyprus Ltd has appointed a Compliance Manager in charge of setting up locally the group rules and complying with local regulations.