Philippines to Plug Money Laundering Holes in Casino Sector

Philippines to Plug Money Laundering Holes in Casino Sector

The Philippines is pushing forward with plans to tighten anti-money laundering (AML) controls in its casino sector.

The country’s casinos, which are lightly regulated by state-run operator-regulator PAGCOR, are currently exempt from the guidelines of its Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001.

Representative Ben Evardone has endorsed legislation to include Philippine casinos under the powers of the nation’s Anti-Money-Laundering Act. All that remains is to decide on the transaction reporting threshold.

But the cyber heist regarding the Federal Reserve Bank of February this past year, drew the relaxed nature associated with the Philippine system towards the globe’s attention and severely embarrassed the country, leading to urgent calls for change not only from lawmakers inside the Philippines but additionally from the World Bank.

On 5th, hackers flooded the Fed Bank with requests for transfers totaling almost $1 billion from an account owned by the Bangladesh Bank and used by the government of Bangladesh february.

Around $101 million had been successfully withdrawn before suspicions were raised. Some $20 million of this sum was quickly traced to Sri Lanka and recovered. The others was transferred to Philippine bank RCBC and, from there, $46 million found its method, via a remittance company, into the casino industry that is philippine.

Time for Change

Representative Ben Evardone, chairman associated with committee on banks 继续阅读“Philippines to Plug Money Laundering Holes in Casino Sector”