Burkina Faso: sanctions against certain banks, « checks did not reveal any terrorist financing or money laundering operation » (Press Release)

This is a press release from the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Prospecting signed by Secretary General Nicolas Kobiane on the banks that have been sanctioned reached our editorial staff

Following the publication by a local newspaper, taken up by social networks, of the sanctions taken by the Banking Commission of UEMOA against certain banks which have been the subject of verifications of the mechanisms for combating money laundering and the fight against the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), it has come back to me that people intend to attack banks that have been sanctioned and accuse them of financing terrorism.

Hereby, I would like to inform everyone that the checks that led to the sanctions that this publication echoes, did not reveal any terrorist financing or money laundering operation. Moreover, such was not the object of these verifications of a thematic nature.

These verifications simply established shortcomings in the management of the internal system required of liable persons in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism in the WAMU area, with regard to the community rules in force and their transposition to the national level. The imposition of sanctions, as well as their publication, aim to strengthen the implementation of preventive measures in accordance with the texts governing the Banking Commission.

Given the current context in our country, I would like to reassure the population, customers and partners of these banks, which the Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Prospective is monitoring, in close collaboration with the community bodies and institutions, the implementation of the entire mechanism for the prevention of money laundering and the financing of terrorism by all the financial institutions established in our country.

I therefore invite the population to divest itself of any act likely to cause undue damage to our banking system and the national economy.

Done in Ouagadougou on October 06

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