Reforms in SBP, FBR needed to prevent laundering, officials tell Asad Umar

ISLAMABAD: The finance ministry officials informed minister Asad Umar that reforms in the State Bank of Pakistan and Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) are need of the hour to prevent money laundering from the country, informed sources.

The recommendations were given in a session held on the FATF chaired by the finance minister on Saturday.

The official complaint to the minister that the Federal Board of Revenue doesn’t send the detected money laundering cases to the FIA.

The sources said that the officials told Umar that the criteria of selecting bank presidents lack transparency, as people who do not have clean records of handling transactions are often selected for the posts.

It was informed that the private banks sent records of over a thousand suspicious bank transactions to the State Bank of Pakistan, adding that as many as Rs218 billion worths of transactions were detected from 284 fake accounts.

The sources said that the officials told the finance minister that Karachi-based Omni group was involved in money laundering of as many as Rs94 billion via 235 bank accounts.

They added that Rs73 billion were laundered abroad via 25 bank accounts of a commercial bank based in Punjab, while Rs25 billion via 25 other accounts.

During the meeting state bank, FBR, FIA and Financial monitoring units complaint of lack of cooperation within the institutes.