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Angola’s report on the financial system is to be discussed at an assembly in April in Arusha, Tanzania, as part of the mutual assessment to which the country’s financial system is being subject since October 2021 by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Earlier in February, the assessors of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) visited the country with the aim of producing the last version of the report on the assessment that was made by the financial system.
The procedure will define whether Angola returns or not to the Financial Action Task Force grey list.
According to the deputy governor of the National Bank of Angola (BNA), Pedro Castro e Silva, a team from the central bank is already in Arusha, Tanzania, to present arguments in relation to the assessments that were made.
The report, already made public, mentions the deficiencies found in the banking system.
According to Pedro Castro e Silva, there is no serious deficiency regarding the fight against money laundering, but regarding the non-banking financial institutions, having admitted that there is the need to make more investments in training of the professionals that operate in this sector.
Other generic issues that affect the banking system and others are related to the “effective beneficiary,” another requirement that the FATF wants to be reinforced in Angola.
“There is no way of executing an operation without knowing who the effective beneficiary is, which we are also working on”, Silva said.
The April Assembly, in Arusha, is not yet the meeting that will define whether Angola will return or not to the FATF’s grey list, given that such a decision will be taken a year later, that is, only in April 2024.
Until then, Angola will have to work to correct the deficiencies detected in the country’s financial system.
The country, Silva said, has a strategy to combat money laundering outlined by the Angolan government, which follows an Action Plan by all entities assessed by the FATF, including supervisors of the financial system.
Virtual crypto-assets
Regarding the virtual crypto-assets and the beneficial owner, Silva said, a revision of the Money Laundering Law is planned to take place.
The review, if it is made, will trigger the review of banking regulation and other sectors that are supervised.
Silva added that the review will provide an opportunity for the BNA to include a position that the country should have in relation to virtual assets, commonly known as crypto-assets.
Crypto-assets are a set of assets stored on a “blockchain” network and which uses cryptography as a security feature.
Transactions involving cryptocurrencies (except funds) do not depend on the supervision of a bank or any other financial institution.
