Violation of law: SBP imposes fine on 15 commercial banks

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) imposed heavy fines on 15 commercial banks for violating the foreign exchange law.

According to SBP, fine worth Rs1.68 billion have been imposed on the banks under anti-money laundering and terror financing acts. The fines were imposed for the period of March 2020 to June 2020.

The SBP has also issued a list of the banks. They are UBL, JS Bank, Meezan Bank, Faysal Bank, The Bank of Punjab, HBL, MCB, National Bank of Pakistan, Bank AlHabib, Habib Metropolitan Bank, Bank Alfalah, Askari Bank, Bank Islami, Punjab Provincial Cooperative Bank and the Zarai Taraqiati Bank.

Most of the banks violated customer due diligence rules while the Punjab Provincial Cooperative Bank and the Zarai Taraqiati Bank had violations under the anti-money laundering and terror financing rules.

Earlier, a court in Karachi ordered to freeze 20 bank accounts, on a request by the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR), for allegedly illicit transfer of foreign exchange, money laundering and Benami transactions.

Likewise, the SBP imposed a fine on a private bank for non-compliance with the screening requirements under FATF AML guidelines.

The SBP imposed the fine for ineffective customer screening procedures. The bank’s employees were involved in assisting transactions conducted by sanctioned persons.