Seychelles hosts the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group |07 June 2023

The ESAAMLG delegation in a souvenir photograph with Minister Hassan and SS Payet

Seychelles, last week, hosted a delegation from the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG), with a view to continue the monitoring of the level of de-risking, within the ESAAMLG member countries, with particular focus on the termination of correspondent banking relationship and its impact on the countries and customers.

Such an exercise, which is continuous, was sanctioned at the ESAAMLG Task Force meeting in April, 2021, where the first de-risking follow-up report was approved and a project team was tasked to continue monitoring the de-risking situation in the region.

Termination of correspondent banking which results in a system where banking institutions cannot access the payment system worldwide, leading to disruption in financial transactions is a phenomenon that continues to affect countries worldwide.

In response to same, the project team aims at evaluating and assessing the level of de-risking within the region based on information provided by ESAAMLG member countries.

The report is to be presented and discussed at the September 2023 Task Force meetings which is to be held in Botswana.

At the meetings last week, the project team convened to perform an analysis on information received related to the level of terminations of correspondent banking relationships, the currencies, geographies and type of accounts affected as well as the effects that these terminations have on the customers of these institutions. This will allow the region to have a better picture of how far de-risking has affected and continues to affect the region.

Upon the conclusion of the assessment of the project team, recommendations will be presented to the Task Force for approval and subsequent implementation.

During their mission, the delegation met and briefed the Minister for Finance, National Planning and Trade, Naadir Hassan, and secretary of state in the Ministry, Patrick Payet, on the work they are undertaking.

Minister Hassan has urged the delegation to not only identify weaknesses and deficiencies, but to also come up with support structures to assist ESAAMLG member countries to address the identified issues.

To note Seychelles is the co-chair of the project team, along with Angola.

Press release from the Ministry of Finance, National Planning & Trade