The risk of money laundering in the banking and real estate sector was at ‘a high level’ as it accounted for almost 90 per cent of suspicious transactions. — VNA/VNS Photo

The risk of money laundering in Viet Nam was at "an average level", according to a State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) report released on Wednesday.

According to the report on national risk assessment on money laundering and terrorist financing in 2012-17 period, the conclusion was made after analysing trends and money laundering scams as well as money and assets created by crime and risks involving many different industries deployed in money laundering.

The report said the risk of money laundering in the banking and real estate sector was at "a high level" as it accounted for almost 90 per cent of suspicious transactions.

“Though not all the crime money was put into the money laundering process, the results showed that compared to other sectors in the economy, there was high possibility that the criminals used the banking sector to legalise their illegal money,” the report noted.

To hide the illegal money earned, criminals tended to use the banking accounts under other people’s names to receive and send the illegal money, the report said.

Meanwhile, the report noted, real estate was often the sector that could attract sources of huge money amounts, as real estate transactions can be carried out by cash or banking transfers, not through real estate exchanges, making it very difficult for authorities to track the flow and source of money.

To carry out money laundering in real estate, criminals often used close relatives to buy then transfer real estate, the report said, adding with all those supporting facts, the risk of money laundering in the real estate sector was also high.

The report also assessed the risks of money laundering in securities, foreign exchange and casino sectors were at average level while the risks in other sectors like auditing, accounting and law were low.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue recently signed a decision to issue an action plan to tackle money laundering and terrorist financing in 2019-20.

The action plan is also expected to meet international standards on prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing while serving the multi-lateral evaluation of the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) and terrorism financing prevention. — VNS