Money Laundering Prevention Measures Among Commercial Banks in Malaysia
Money Laundering Prevention Measures Among Commercial Banks in Malaysia
5; May 2013
Jamaliah Said
Erlane K. Ghani
Normah Omar
Sharifah Norzehan Syed Yusuf
Accounting Research Institute and Faculty of Accountancy
University Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
Abstract
The main objective of this study is to examine a range of issues regarding compliance measures adopted by the
Malaysian commercial banks. This study assesses the current state of compliance measures adopted by the
Malaysian banks. This study also examines the critical success factors in ensuring successful implementation of
money laundering and financial terrorism measures. Based on 39 respondents among compliance officers in
commercial banks, this study found that commercial banks in Malaysia take responsibilities in money laundering
and terrorist financing compliance measures seriously. However, further analysis revealed that there is a
significant difference between level of perceived important and the actual level of anti money laundering
prevention measures adopted. Such results indicate that despite perceiving the measures as an important tool to
combat, detect, investigate and prosecute suspicious money laundering and terrorist financing, the actual level of
implementation by the banks is significantly lower. Among the top factors perceived importance to ensure
successful implementation of the money laundering prevention measures are support from top management,
expert staff, technology infrastructure availability and existence of political influence.
Keywords: Money laundering and financing of terrorism, prevention measures, commercial banks, Malaysia
1.0 Introduction
Money laundering and financing of terrorism are global problems that not only threaten security but also
jeopardising stability, transparency and efficiency of government systems, thus undermining economic prosperity
(Quirk, 1997; Barrett, 1997; Paradise, 1998; Masciandaro & Portolano, 2003). Other group of researchers argued
that money laundering and the financing of terrorism weakens the financial systems which are the main players
for global financial transactions (Vaithilingam & Nair, 2007; Simwayi & Guohua, 2011). Of consequence, such
scenario would jeopardise the socio-economic development of these nations. Money laundering is a complex
highly-intelligent crime, which is of severe danger to the society (Bonnie, 2005). It is estimated that one-fifth of
the global of money laundered occurred in the Asian region as $200 billion (Bonnie, 2005). According to Bonnie
(2005), some Asia-Pacific countries are still lacking of consistent anti-money laundering legislation. She argued
that the Asia-Pacific region is a home to five of the six remaining non-cooperative countries and territories on the
Financial Action Task Force's 2004 list.
The increasing concern on the catastrophic impact of money laundering and terrorist financing have influences
many international communities to put great efforts to ensure that their organisation complies with the Financial
Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations. FATF requires some measures to be taken by the international
communities such as the AML legislation, setting up Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). These communities focus
on information disclosure and transparency in financial institutions and establish international co-operation and
information sharing systems to combat, detect, investigate and prosecute suspicious money laundering and
terrorist financing transactions (FATF, 2006) In realising the disastrous effect of money laundering and terrorist
financing activities to the country’s economy, the Malaysian government have made considerable progress in
fighting money laundering and terrorism financing.
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The introduction of the Anti Money Laundering Act 2001 and the establishment of the Financial Intelligence Unit
of the Central Bank of Malaysia are two major steps aim at combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
However, a decade after the passing of the Act, there seems to be a limited number empirical study in relation to
money laundering and terrorism financing measures implemented by Malaysian commercial banks. This study
hopes to fill this gap. This study explores a range of issues regarding compliance measures adopted, the gap
between compliance measures perceived important and the actual level of implementation, relationship between
level of risk and level of compliance measure adopted and identifying critical success factors to ensure successful
compliance measures. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. The next section provides a review of
the relevant literature. Section 3 presents the research questions and followed by Section 4 that outlines the
research design. The results are presented in section 5. A discussion of the results and their implications are
provided in the last section.
1
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Monetary Fund (2003). Anti-Money
Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism
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Section B requests respondent to assess the level of money laundering and terrorism financing risk faced by their
organisation. The respondents are requested to rate the risk using 5 point scale ranging from “1” as no risk to “5”
as extremely high risk. Section C requests respondents to provide their opinion on the factors considered
important to ensure successful implementation of money laundering and terrorist financing measures. Section D
requests the respondents to provide information on their demographic profile such age bracket, position,
qualification and number of years in organisation.
5.0 Results and Discussion
Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics of the respondents in terms of age, number of years in organisation,
position, and highest qualification. Panel A of Table 1 shows that out of the 39 respondents, 69.2 % is below 30
years old. This is followed by age group between 30 to 40 years which is represented by 23.1% of the total
respondents. The remaining of 7.7% of the respondents is above 40 years old. Panel B exhibits the number of
years that the respondents have been working in the organisation. A small number of the respondents have been
working in the organisation for less than a year (2.6%), 43.5% for 1 to 3 years, 30.8% for 4 to 9 years and 23%
have been working for more than 9 years. Panel C and D of Table 1 show that more than 90% of the respondents
are from the lower to middle management and hold a university degree qualification.
Table 1: Demographic Profile
Item Frequency Percent
Panel A: Age
Under 30 27 69.2
30 - 40 9 23.1
Above 40 3 7.7
Panel B: Number of years in organisation
< 1 year 1 2.6
1 – 3 years 17 43.5
4 – 9 years 12 30.8
> 9 years 9 23
Panel C: Position
Middle management 16 41
Lower management 17 43.6
Support staff 6 15.4
Panel D: Qualification
University degree 36 92.3
Professional qualification 3 7.7
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The least measures implemented are provision of training or guidance to employees on identification of
suspicious activity (mean score = 3.69, standard deviation =1.173), conduct procedures for compliance review
which include who should conduct, what should be focused and to whom the findings to be reported (mean score
= 3.72, standard deviation = 1.376) and provision of training or guidance to employees on policies and
procedures of anti money laundering (mean score = 3.74, standard deviation = 1.229).
Overall, the mean score for each measure ranges from the highest of4.31 to the lowest of 3.69. This implies that
the Malaysian commercial banks take their responsibilities in money laundering and terrorist financing
compliance measures seriously.
Table 2: Anti money laundering prevention measures
Anti money laundering prevention measures Rank Mean Std dev
Appointment of a compliance officer to manage and oversee the operation
5 3.90 1.273
of the compliance program
Allocate adequate amount of resources, including staff and financial
6 3.87 1.260
resources to manage the compliance program
Conduct client identification procedures, including the information
required the course of action to be taken when client refuses to provide 2 4.08 1.306
information
Conduct procedures to meet reporting requirements, including the
designation of responsible employees, submission procedure and record 4 3.90 1.294
retention
Conduct procedures to meet record keeping obligations, including the type
of document, who has responsibility for the maintenance of files,
4 3.92 1.156
confidentially, the type of information collected and the length of time each
record is required to be kept.
Conduct procedures for compliance review, including who should conduct
9 3.72 1.376
what should focused and to whom the findings will be reported
Conduct procedures on the setting out of how the risk assessments will be
conducted, including what areas will be examined by whom, the
5 3.89 1.085
methodology used in the assessments, and how the findings will be
reported and implemented
Conduct periodic review to verify the effectiveness of the compliance
6 3.87 1.234
program
Updating compliance program as necessary in line with the changes in
3 4.00 1.283
laws or regulation
Monitoring accounts for suspicious activity 1 4.31 1.127
Provide training or guidance to employees on identification of suspicious
10 3.69 1.173
activity
Provide training or guidance to employees on policies and procedures of
8 3.74 1.229
anti money laundering
Share anti-money laundering information with federal law enforcement
7 3.85 1.204
agencies and other financial institutions
This indicated that despite perceiving that the measures as important in combating, detecting, investigating and
prosecuting suspicious money laundering and terrorist financing (mean score = 4.51, standard deviation =
0.59223, standard error = 0.09483),the actual level of implementation is significantly lower ( mean score = 3.89,
standard deviation = 1.12589, standard error = 0.18029) for all compliance measures proposed by international
standard.
Table 3
Std. Error
Overall Paired Sample Test Mean Std. Deviation Sig
Mean
Perceived important 4.51 0.59223 0.09483
0.000
Actual level of implementation 3.89 1.12589 0.18029
Further analysis for each measure indicates that for each measure, the perceived important is significantly higher
than the actual level of measures implemented in their organisation. Table 4 provides the results of paired sample
t-test for each measure proposed by the international standard. For each pair, the significant 2 tailed result shows
p is lower than 0.05. Such result indicates that there is a significant difference between the perceived important
and the actual level of measures implemented. It can be concluded that the respondents believed that the measures
are important to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, but due to certain reasons the level of
implementation is significantly lower.
Table 4: Paired Sample Test for each individual measures
Paired Differences
95% Confidence
Std.
Std. Interval of the Sig. (2-
Mean Error t
Deviation Difference tailed)
Mean
Lower Upper
Appointment of a compliance officer 0.769 1.087 0.174 0.417 1.122 4.418 0.000
Allocate adequate amount of
0.513 1.167 0.187 0.135 0.891 2.744 0.009
resources,
Conduct client identification
0.359 1.224 0.196 -0.038 0.756 1.831 0.075
procedures
Conduct procedures to meet
0.615 1.091 0.175 0.262 0.969 3.523 0.001
reporting requirements
Conduct procedures to meet record
0.538 1.072 0.172 0.191 0.886 3.136 0.003
keeping obligations
Conduct procedures for compliance
0.744 1.163 0.186 0.366 1.121 3.991 0.000
review
Conduct procedures setting out how
the risk assessments will be 0.447 1.058 0.172 0.100 0.795 2.607 0.013
conducted
Conduct a periodic review to verify
the effectiveness of the compliance 0.579 0.919 0.149 0.277 0.881 3.883 0.000
program
Updating the compliance program as
0.543 1.039 0.176 0.186 0.900 3.092 0.004
necessary
Monitor accounts for suspicious
0.462 0.854 0.137 0.185 0.738 3.376 0.002
activity
Provide training on how to find
0.821 1.073 0.172 0.473 1.168 4.776 0.000
identity suspicious activity
Provide training on policies and
0.846 1.159 0.186 0.470 1.222 4.558 0.000
procedures of anti money laundering
Share anti-money laundering
information other relevant 0.615 1.042 0.167 0.278 0.953 3.689 0.001
institutions
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5.3 Perceived Level of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risk and Level of Anti Money
Laundering Prevention Measures
The third objective of the study is to examine whether there is a relationship between the perceived level of
money laundering and terrorist financing risk and level of anti money laundering prevention measures adopted by
the Malaysian commercial banks. Table 5 presents the result of the regression analysis. The finding shows that
there is a significant positive relationship between perceived level of risk and level of anti money laundering
prevention program adopted (B=0.431, t = 2.908 and p = .006). This provides an indication that there is a positive
relationship between the level of money laundering and terrorist financing risk and the level of measures adopted
by the organisations. Organisations that feel that their organization are exposed to a higher risk of money
laundering and terrorist financing tend to adopt stronger measures of money laundering and terrorist financing
prevention program.
Table 5: Regression analysis on the relationship between level of money laundering risk and the extend of
measures implemented
Unstandardized Standardized t Sig.
Coefficients Coefficients
B Std. Error Beta
(Constant) 1.294 0.738 1.752 0.088
AML/CFT measures 0.531 0.183 0.431 2.908 0.006
6.0 Conclusion
It is generally agreed that a well designed money laundering preventing measures is pivotal to an effective money
laundering and terrorist financing regime. The findings in this study revealed that the Malaysian commercial
banks take their responsibilities in money laundering and terrorist financing compliance measures seriously. The
mean score of each compliance measure is considerably high. Among the measures that is highly adopted by
commercial banks in Malaysia are monitoring accounts for suspicious activity, conducting client identification
procedures (that is the information required the course of action to be taken when the client refuses to provide
information) and updating compliance program as necessary in line with the changes in laws or regulation.
The findings in this study also show that the Malaysian commercial banks placed least emphasised on measures
such as conducting procedures for compliance review (that is who should conduct, what should be focused and to
whom the findings need to be reported) and provide training (that is guidance to employees on policies and
procedures of anti money laundering and on how to identify suspicious activity).
This study also discovered that there is a significant difference between the level of perceived important and the
level of anti money laundering prevention measures adopted. This finding indicates that despite perceiving the
measures as important to combat, detect, investigate and prosecute suspicious money laundering and terrorist
financing, the actual level of implementation is significantly lower for all measures proposed by the international
standard. The reasons for the low level of money laundering and terrorist financing measures adopted are due to
lack of top management support, lack of expert staff, inadequate allocation of resources, lack of technology
infrastructure and inadequate support from political influence. Hence, top management should shows support by
allocating adequate level or resources in terms of appointing specific personnel as compliance officer, budget for
training for all employees involved in prevention of money laundering and provide training and technical
assistance necessary in building institutions capable of a sustained approach in the fight against money
laundering. In addition, organisations must provide significant financial support for many of the anti-money
laundering by investing adequate level of resources for IT infrastructure.
This study recommends that policies and program need to be developed that nurture in increasing the awareness
of compliance measures. In addition, the Malaysian government should used political influence in making
compliance measures as mandatory and this would ensure all relevant authorities to take their responsibility in
money laundering compliance measures. Global cooperation is needed to address these threats. Hence, sharing of
anti-money laundering information with federal law enforcement agencies and other financial institutions is
important to ensure effective law enforcement.
In sum, it is well accepted that the money laundering and the financing of terrorism are problems of global
concern. The scenario in Malaysia indicated that the action towards implementing compliance measures
significantly related to level of risk and higher risk organisation tend to be more serious in implementing
compliance measures. This finding provides an explanation on why commercial banks do not fully implement the
preventive measures as the occurrences of money laundering and terrorist financing in Malaysia is currently
perceived as not very serious.
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