Thai banking regulators probe suspicious transactions after global leaks

[webfact]

Thai banking regulators probe suspicious transactions after global leaks 

By The Nation

 

Jaturong Jantarangs, BOT assistant governor

 

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) said it was working with the Anti-Money Laundering Office to prevent money laundering by criminals and terrorists, after four Thai banks were named in global suspicious transaction reports leaked to the media.

 

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published more than 2,000 leaked suspicious activity reports (SARs) that banks and financial institutions filed with the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen). They covered about US$2 trillion (Bt62.9 trillion) in potentially corrupt transactions. 

 

Among them were suspicious transactions worth $41 million via Kasikornbank, Bangkok Bank, Krungthai Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Thailand between 2000 to 2017.

 

Jaturong Jantarangs, BOT assistant governor, said that when financial institutions find suspicious transactions, they must report them to the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) for investigation.

 

However, not all suspicious transactions break laws, he added.

 

Information about the four Thai banks’ involvement in suspicious transactions came from the ICIJ, not from FinCEN, so regulators will have to investigate it first, he said.

 

Meanwhile Krungthai Bank president Paying Srivanich said his bank had not yet been contacted by regulators about the issue.

 

“We are ready to cooperate with global government agencies on investigations of the suspicious transactions, and we have long been cooperating with the central bank and AMLO,” he added.

 

Banking shares have fallen recently due mainly to the slow economic recovery and Covid-19 fallout. Yesterday, Kasikornbank shares fell 2.94 per cent, Bangkok Bank’s fell 1.79 per cent, Siam Commercial Bank’s dropped 0.39 per cent, Krungthai Bank’s fell 1.10 per cent and Krungsri Bank’s dropped 0.51 per cent.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/business/30395036

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-09-24

 

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[tracker1]

Hate to think who might have or still are doing suspicious transactions ! Let's hope they name them !!!!!

[RichardColeman]

Maybe they should investigate the Bank Of Prayut accumulation of 200,000,000,000 baht 

[Rancid]

Most banks are criminal organizations, so I guess hardly surprising if irregularities are found in Thailand. How many western banks have been found money laundering for arms trafficking and drugs, insider trading and market manipulation. When caught they generally pay a fine that is a tiny percentage of the illicit gains, so why would it stop?

[thailand49]

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

Maybe they should investigate the Bank Of Prayut accumulation of 200,000,000,000 baht 

In the beginning he could barely afford tissue to wipe his butt now he has someone doing it for him and holding his dick at the same time.????

[from the home of CC]

large western banks floating billions of dirty money around the world, how else were they going to cash in on the drug trade? What's funny is that they even try to clean this up by saying it's proceeds from 'Ponzi' schemes lol. Ironically many of these banks are located in countries that are staunch anti drug, basically just greedy hypocrites all of them.. 

[spidermike007]

Totally fake news. The real problem is, they will not go after these guys. Not the top bankers, not the high ranking guys, not the provincial authorities, and certainly not the army, or the police. They are all corrupt beyond imagination. And the level of corruption simply escalates, the further up the food chain you go. They police and army are not expected to be honest, and they are not expected to engage in law enforcement, traffic or public safety, on any level. It is an irrevocably broken and dysfunctional system.

 

Anything hyperbole to the contrary, is just a smoke screen, intended to deceive the most naive amongst us. 

[hotchilli]

Where there's money there's corruption... at every level, it's just the depth that varies.

[zzaa09]

2 hours ago, Rancid said:

Most banks are criminal organizations, so I guess hardly surprising if irregularities are found in Thailand. How many western banks have been found money laundering for arms trafficking and drugs, insider trading and market manipulation. When caught they generally pay a fine that is a tiny percentage of the illicit gains, so why would it stop?

All banking and financial systems are criminally corrupt and vacant of any ethical standing, by their very nature. 

Historically true......akin to their overlording governments.

[ukrules]

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Totally fake news. The real problem is, they will not go after these guys. Not the top bankers, not the high ranking guys, not the provincial authorities, and certainly not the army, or the police. They are all corrupt beyond imagination. And the level of corruption simply escalates, the further up the food chain you go. They police and army are not expected to be honest, and they are not expected to engage in law enforcement, traffic or public safety, on any level. It is an irrevocably broken and dysfunctional system.

 

Anything hyperbole to the contrary, is just a smoke screen, intended to deceive the most naive amongst us. 

Indeed, what they will do though is introduce a whole new set of hurdles for anyone who wants to transfer more than a small amount of money, I believe the 'suspicious threshold' is currently around $10k

 

In reality these rules only affect those wanting to send slightly more than normal on an occasional basis.

 

I've come across KYC processes which want to know everything about you, your history, tax history, earnings history - going back 10 or more years just to move relatively small amounts of money.

 

[grumpy 4680]

           Its just wishfull thinking that anything will come this, Banks are only interested in money, so they only go after the small fry, to suggest they are doing something to prevent money laundering, but add a row of zeroes, and all's forgotten