The President of Western Union Africa, Middle East, Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and CIS, Jean Claude Farah says his outfit has introduced new measures to combat money laundering in Ghana.
This follows a €5m fine placed on Western Union in 2012 after it failed to prevent the firm’s payment services from being used for money laundering and terrorist financing.
Western union is an American financial service and communications corporation that facilitates the transfer of fund across countries.
Speaking at the 20th anniversary celebrations of Western Union’s operations in Africa, Jean Claude Farah said he is confident that the fight against money laundering and terrorist funding will succeed in Ghana.
“We invest $250 million on a yearly basis in our compliance capabilities to protect our agents, customers and ourselves. We do not want bad money to ride on our systems and this is important for Western Union. We have been investing that for the past five years. Anti Money Laundering and Terrorist funding would not pass through us. I have seen a sign talking about Anti Money Laundering and Terrorist funding at the Kotoka Airport so I guess we are at home here because this is what we at Western Union want”, he remarked.
He also pointed out that his outfit is bent on tightening its systems such that funds wired through are not coming from such sources.
“We have people assessing transactions each and every day, we have been investing in our capabilities as a team and those capabilities are endless. We have formed patterns and built software to know if funds are going through or coming from these terrorist organizations” said Jean Claude Farah
The President was accompanied by Aida Diarra, Western Union’s Regional Vice President and Head of Africa and other members of the Africa leadership team.
By: Ivy Antwi/citifmonline.com/Ghana