The governor of the Central Bank of Angola (BNA), José de Lima Massano, considers that the country has made remarkable progress in its financial system, after leaving the black and grey lists of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
“We evolved in the year 2016, we definitively left this list. We came out of the black list, we went through the grey list and we are out,” said José de Lima Massano, during the 105th session of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), held in Huila on 31 May this year.
Answering local journalists, at the time, about the coming to Angola of the team from the Group for the Prevention of Money Laundering in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESSAMLG), he said that it was a path that the country had been following since 2010, a period in which the country was blocked for being part of a list of countries that were considered to be non-cooperating.
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“We want to remain outside those lists. The work is permanent and the rules are changed and some are determined by the FATF itself, which regulates these matters and others are from initiatives from our own authorities, including the National Bank of Angola itself,” said the governor of the Central Bank.
Speaking about the financial system, he said it was noticeable that nowadays the banks were asking more questions and wanted to know where the money came from, to ensure that what was determined from a normative point of view, in terms of effectiveness, was also a reality.
In this field, he said that progress has been made, looking at the work that must continue to be done since “there is still room for improvement and to always do a little more, in the scope of these matters”.
In this regard, he said he wanted to rely a little more on the entities that are not supervised by the BNA, for whom the assessment being made is really about the country and not just the financial system.
“With regard only to the financial system, the work we have done gives us the comfort that we are on the right track,” he reiterated.
He added there is, likewise, work to raise awareness of the people who connect with the transactions that take place either within or outside the financial system.
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“The concern is not only that there is an act of laundering of the financial system, but also the origin of those transactions,” he stressed.
The mutual assessment of the financial system by the team from the ESAAMLG – the FATF branch, will take place in Angola from 27 June to 15 July, this year, with the delegation’s visit scheduled for Thursday, 23 July.
The assessment will be of compliance and effectiveness, following the provision of laws and regulations that drive the Angolan financial system.
The results of the assessments will be known in the first quarter of 2023, in a plenary to be held in Arusha, Tanzania.
