State Bank requires reporting of suspicious gold transactions

To enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of anti-money laundering work, the State Bank of Vietnam issued Document No. 4885/NHNN-TTGSNH on June 12, requiring units licensed to trade in gold bars and payment service providers to review suspicious transactions and submit money laundering risk assessment reports to the State Bank before July 15, 2024.

Accordingly, the State Bank requires credit institutions, foreign bank branches, gold bar trading and trading organizations, and payment intermediary service providers to continue to strictly implement the provisions of the 2022 Law on Anti-Money Laundering, Decree No. 19/2023/ND-CP dated April 28, 2023 of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering, Decision No. 11/2023/QD-TTg dated April 27, 2023 of the Prime Minister stipulating the level of large-value transactions that must be reported, and Circular No. 09/2023/TT-NHNN dated July 28, 2023 of the Governor of the State Bank guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering, and the direction of the State Bank in Official Dispatch No. 10064/NHNN-TTGSNH dated December 28, 2023.

The State Bank also requires the above units to strictly comply with reporting large-value transactions as prescribed in Article 25; reporting suspicious transactions as prescribed in Article 26 of the 2022 Law on Anti-Money Laundering and making additional reports (if any) as prescribed by the law on anti-money laundering; promptly reporting and providing information and documents related to suspicious transactions.

Credit institutions, gold trading organizations, and payment intermediaries shall review, update, and submit additional risk assessment reports on money laundering, terrorist financing, financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, internal regulations on anti-money laundering, internal audit reports in accordance with the law, information on focal officers on anti-money laundering (if any changes)... to the Anti-Money Laundering Department in accordance with the Law on Anti-Money Laundering and guidance in Circular No. 09/2023/TT-NHNN before July 15, 2024.

Speaking to the press, the leader of a state-owned commercial bank said that at the bank's gold bar sales points, bank staff could not immediately detect suspicious transactions to prevent them. However, the bank collected and compiled all data from the citizen identification numbers and personal documents of the buyers and sent them to the State Bank's Anti-Money Laundering Department.

The price of SJC gold bars announced by 4 state-owned commercial banks including: Agribank, BIDV, Vietcombank and VietinBank this morning, June 13, continued to remain at the old level of 76.98 million VND/tael. This is the 5th consecutive session that the price of SJC gold bars sold by banks remains at 76.98 million VND/tael.