The Central Bank of Ireland today published a report of its observations in relation to Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and Financial Sanctions (FS) compliance by credit unions in Ireland.
- The report is based on a review of a sample of credit unions. While examples of good practice were observed, the Central Bank identified widespread deficiencies including:
- Failure to conduct adequate money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessments of the business;
- Inadequate AML/CFT policies, procedures and systems and controls in place;
- Failure to ensure the provision of appropriate training to board members, staff and volunteers at all levels;
- Inconsistent and/or undocumented approaches for the reporting of Suspicious Transaction Reports to An Garda Síochána and the Revenue Commissioners.
Head of Anti-Money Laundering at the Central Bank Domhnall Cullinan said:
The credit union movement is an important component of the financial services sector. Many credit unions are community based and this helps those credit unions to know their members, which is vital to consumer protection. Credit unions need to use this knowledge to comprehensively assess the money laundering and terrorist financing risk in its business and implement the recommendations of this report as appropriate to the nature, scale and complexity of that business. The Central Bank expects all credit unions to carefully consider the issues raised in the report and to use it to bring their policies and procedures up to standard where necessary.
