Five-day member training on AML/CFT and Financial Inclusion wraps up

It’s a wrap! The member training on Balancing Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) and Financial Inclusion concluded on 16 November, 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Organized by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), the five-day member training gathered 38 participants from 30 countries, and 32 AFI member institutions. This diverse representation ensured that the event set another great example of learning through sharing.

“Success, as they say, is not built on success. It is built on failure. In the AFI capacity building events we try to provide our members with platform where one does not share only your success stories, but also share what is not working and try to find possible solutions together”, said Madhurantika Moulick, Head, Capacity Building, AFI.

This Capacity Building program focused on enhancing member capacity to develop and implement effective frameworks for robust and proportionate AML/CFT regimes that will take the global financial inclusion agenda forward, as rising risks to financial integrity result from financial exclusion. The member training covered cross-cutting policy topics including data gathering and analysis for the National Risk Assessment (NRA); integrating NRA into the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS); leveraging FinTech solutions such as Know-Your-Customer (KYC) innovations (digital ID, RegTech) to address de-risking; and gender considerations in balancing AML/CFT and financial inclusion.

“The program is really well-managed, its content was interesting and useful to help us to improve our regime”, said a participant, adding that the issue of balancing AML/CFT and Financial Inclusion is a key and immediate concern amongst the members

Apart from the AFI member institutions and AFI Management Unit, speakers also came from Asia-Pacific Money Laundering Group (APG), Eastern and South Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG), The Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion (Cenfri), Norwegian Refugee Council, The World Bank, SWIFT and Risikotek. “This was a great program, the learning environment was conducive allowed for interaction and participation. The trainers facilitated shaping and channeling your thinking to a different perception of what we are used to. Thinking out of the box”