Reasons for closing remittance companies .. It is shown .. the central clarifies
The Central Bank of Syria responded to what was reported by some media sites and social networks on the subject of closing a number of branches of internal remittances companies that are active in the black market according to wrong information and interpretations; Foreign transfers and the uses of foreign exchange, and therefore it is his duties to control the work of any of the institutions that violate the mentioned laws and regulations, whether they are banks or exchange companies or licensed money transfers and even individuals who try to speculate on the Syrian pound and manipulate National economy.
Accordingly, controlling the activity of remittances received from abroad helps increase transparency and dependence on the institutions licensed for this purpose, which are banks and exchange companies only. In this context, the role of internal remittances companies is limited to distributing incoming remittances from abroad according to contracts with exchange companies approved by the principles The Central Bank of Syria.
As for the cases of closings of some branches of the internal financial transfer companies, we show that as a result of the information received by the Central Bank of Syria and the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Authority on the activity of these companies in illegal foreign transfers received in an illegal and anonymous source, this information was analyzed and interrupted with reporting reports received Suspicious of the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Authority, and the results obtained as a result of this analysis, field missions were carried out to verify the validity of these cases. Based on the results of the missions, some of the violating branches were closed, while the remaining cases are still being examined.
We show here that internal money transfer companies and exchange companies are classified as high-risk institutions that require the imposition of additional due diligence procedures, as it is one of the first financial institutions that are scrutinized by international bodies when assessing the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing in any country in accordance with international standards and recommendations Issued by the Financial Working Group "FATF".
The Central Bank stresses that the presence of these violations may expose the financial and banking system in Syria to high risks for imposing international sanctions whose effects far exceed the impact of the unilateral and coercive sanctions and measures imposed by the United States and Europe now imposed, especially since Syria will enter the next stage in the second round of the joint evaluation process that It is carried out by the Financial Action Group in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which will assess the effectiveness of the AML / CFT system at the national level.
Source: Banking and Insurance
