Released on = August 12, 2007, 11:15 pm

Press Release Author = Abdul Aziz

Industry = Software

Press Release Summary = Are your financial institution's compliance processes
completely aligned to Bank Negara Malaysia's Anti-Money Laundering(AML)/Combating
Financing of Terrorism(CFT) guidelines under the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2001?

Press Release Body = Bank Negara Malaysia under the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2001
(AMLA), issued revised AML/CFT Guidelines in November 2006 to the banking &
insurance institutions. These revised AML/CFT Guidelines are in line with the
Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF)'s 40+9 Recommendations. These
revised guidelines place significant emphasis on effective oversight by the Board of
Directors to ensure that the policies and procedures adopted by the financial
institutions in Malaysia are in compliance with the AMLA and the related regulatory
requirements.



Thus far, the Attorney-General's Chambers of Malaysia has prosecuted 21 money
laundering cases, of which two cases were convicted in 2005 and 2007 respectively.
The other 19 cases are at various stages of prosecution. These cases involved a 738
charges of money laundering offences with total amount of RM262.1 million.



The extension of the AMLA provision has been undertaken in two stages beginning with
the invocation of the reporting of suspicious transactions, followed by the
remaining provisions under Part IV of the AMLA that deal with Customer Due Diligence
(CDD) and Compliance programme.



Cash threshold reporting (CTR) requirement of RM50,000 and above in a day was
invoked in September 2006. The invocation of the CTR complements the mandatory legal
obligation imposed on banking institutions and other categories of reporting
institutions to submit suspicious transaction reports (STR) to the financial
intelligence conducted by Bank Negara Malaysia.



Constantly changing as well as tightening anti-money laundering regulations not only
in Malaysia but across the other countries, makes it essential for financial
institutions to put in place automated compliance processes to avoid financial and
legal consequences in the short run. If left unattended, these compliance issues,
could affect your institution's reputation, and in some cases lead to imposition of
hefty penalties in your own country and as well foreign territories.



To meet these AML/CFT related regulatory and compliance requirements, we have built
a compliance automation solution (FSP-KAT), core of which is architected around
FATF's 40+9 recommendations. This AML/CFT compliance solution can be easily adapted
to Bank Negara Malaysia's reporting requirements for submissions of CTRs & STRs and
finally snap-fitted to your institutions existing processes.


Web Site = http://www.divassoftware.com

Contact Details = Abdul Aziz
Senior Product Executive (Compliance)
Hand Phone: +91.9312009192
Email: abdul@divassoftware.com

Divas Offshore Software Technologies (P) Ltd.
N-1/3, DLF Phase II, Gurgaon - 122002, India.
Tel: +91.124.4018801 (8 Lines) Ext.112
Fax: +91.124.4018044
Web: www.divassoftware.com