Attorney General Godfred Dame is making a case for banks and other related financial Institutions to be held accountable for concealing the identities of persons who save money in offshore accounts.

Describing such financial systems as opaque, the Attorney General said these types of bank accounts could be conduits for the illicit flow of proceeds of corruption from Ghana and other countries.

 Addressing a gathering at the 41st Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, he noted that “the duty to provide particulars of beneficiary owners and the registration processes provide a strong safeguard against money laundering and corruption.”

He added that this helps boost investor confidence in the Ghanaian economy.

“The phenomenon of the creation of shell companies and opaque financial systems that provide the opportunity for the laundering and concealment of illicit wealth is being drastically reduced by the enactment of the Companies Act,” he stated.

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Mr Yeboah Dame called for increased international cooperation to tackle illicit financial flows.

“Respectfully, we must tackle financial crimes from the base, an effective way to deprive criminals of the fruit of their wrongdoing is by dealing with the sources of funding of their subversive enterprises to disrupt and intercept the proceeds of their misconduct… Banks must be held accountable for the protection of identities of holders of accounts especially in some offshore jurisdictions often becomes a façade and a conduit for the concealment of proceeds of corruption and other economic crimes,” he said.

According to him, tracing the assets of accused persons especially convicts of an economic crime is a sophisticated enterprise that requires the willing participation of a network of gatekeepers.

The Attorney General pointed to some other interventions being made by the government to check the situation locally.