FINANCIAL PLANNERS SHOULD REPORT SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITIES TO AUTHORITIES -- POLICE

By Engku Shariful Azni Engku Ab Latif and Nurul Jannah Kamaruddin

KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 (Bernama) -- Financial planners need to carry out their duty to report any suspicious activities that might be linked to money laundering to the authorities, Bukit Aman Anti-Money Laundering Criminal Investigation Division assistant director ACP Foo Wei Min.

Foo said that the rate of reports by financial planners about such activities were currently still low, adding that as reporting institutions, they had the duty to lodge suspicious transaction reports (STR) and currency transaction reports (CTR) to senior management of banks when approached by clients who wished to purchase products without disclosing their financial sources.

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"When Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) receives a report, they will channel it to enforcement and we will investigate,” he told Bernama when met at the Annual Signature Financial Planning Symposium 2024 here today.

He said that bank compliance groups also played a role as an advisory body to banks to suggest stringent measures for products that banks launch to ensure that the can curb mule accounts.

"But there are those (who know of mule accounts) but don’t make (reports to banks), and don’t carry out their duty of advising banks,” he said.

The Commercial Crime Investigation Department detected RM3.8 billion in currency transfer transactions to 43 countries through 15 trading companies registered in Malaysia in March suspected to be illicit gains from fraudulent activities from 2021 to 2023.

Its director, Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said the department detected the trend of companies being registered and accounts opened in the companies’ names suspected to be used as mule accounts.

-- BERNAMA