All banks in the country may soon be required to report to the Financial Intelligence Centre all withdrawals or deposits made by their account holders that exceed a certain limit. This will be the case when the FIC introduces the cash transaction threshold for banks, an alert system that is aimed at checking the use of the banking system to transfer monies generated from or used to fund illegal or illicit activities. The mechanism is standard practice in countries where anti money laundering and terrorist financing regimes are in place. Officials explain the regime is necessary so Ghana can avoid having its banking industry being blacklisted as a haven for criminals. Acting Chief Executive of the FIC, Thompson Essel told Joy Business the centre, together with the Bank of Ghana, Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Insurance Commission are finalizing guidelines on how the reporting should be carried out. He said the reports can tip-off a suspicious transaction and trigger investigations into such transactions. “It is incumbent upon banks to report 20 largest deposits to the Central Bank …for the purposes of the Central Bank knowing the concentration of cash in certain sectors of the economy,” he explained. He was speaking to Joy Business at the end of a training program on anti-money laundering and terrorist financing organised by the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering. Source: Joy Business/Ghana