Money laundering -- reporting of suspicious transactions

9 January 1998

Money laundering -- reporting of suspicious transactions

I am writing to request for information on the number of suspicious transactions received by the compliance officer of your institution and submitted to the Joint Financial Intelligence Unit (JFIU) by your institution from 1995 onwards. As reporting of suspicious transactions is an important requirement under the HKMA Guideline on Prevention of Money Laundering, the information obtained would not only enable us to assess the general reporting situation within the banking sector but also to plan our supervisory efforts more effectively.

I would be grateful if you could ask your compliance officer to fill in the enclosed simple form and return it to us by 31 January 1998. To allow us to continue to monitor the situation, we would like to make this an annual exercise.

You can rest assured that the information collected will be kept strictly confidential and only collective figures may be released if necessary. Should you have any questions on the above, please feel free to contact Ms. Carman Chiu on 2878 1401 or Mr. Osbert Lam on 2878 8217.

Encl.