The Orient Joint Stock Commercial Bank, Fintek Company Limited and TESS International sign an agreement in HCM City on November 9 to implement anti-money laundering measures at the bank. — VNS Photo Xuan Huong

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — The Orient Joint Stock Commercial Bank, consultancy Fintek Company Limited and its Malaysian principal TESS International on Wednesday signed an agreement for an anti-money laundering project at OCB.

Nguyen Dinh Tung, OCB's CEO, said: "When the bank's scope and scale are increasingly widening, it means the bank has to face with the risk of money laundering, terrorist financing and trading fraud, which are alarming problems worldwide."

The anti-money laundering system provides many different models and methods to filter customer information based on black lists, warning lists, embargo lists, and others and discover and investigate any suspicious transactions such as inconsistent or misleading customer information and cash transactions or deposits not in line with customers' business operations.

Implementing an AML system would help the bank create a solid foundation in terms of risk management activities and the system's transparency and safety, Nguyen Hoang Ly, Fintek founder and chairman, said.

The AML project has been implemented at OCB since September, and is expected to be applied bank-wide by February next year.

Le Thi Kim Xuan, chief representative of the Viet Nam Banks Association, said along with increasing integration, money laundering has also gone up and become more sophisticated.

According to financial experts, money laundering activities target developing countries and countries with a habit of using cash like Việt Nam, she said.

As banks become more globally integrated, they must improve their risk management to international standards, she added. — VNS