Bank of Tanzania fines five banks over money laundering related transactions

Bank of Tanzania (BoT)

What you need to know:

In a statement, dated Thursday, September 19, the regulator named the affected banks as African Banking Corporation, Equity Bank, I&M Bank, UBL Bank and Habib African Bank

Dar es Salaam. The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) flexed its muscles at the weekend, striking fines totalling Sh1.88 billion on five banks over suspicious transactions.

In a statement, dated Thursday, September 19, 2019, the regulator named the affected banks as African Banking Corporation, Equity Bank, I&M Bank, UBL Bank and Habib African Bank for filing suspicious transaction reports to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

“The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) has imposed monetary penalties on five banks for breach of regulations 17, 22 and 28 of the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, 2012 for failure to conduct proper customer due diligence and file suspicious transaction reports to Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU),” the statement reads.

I&M Bank will pay the highest amount of fine, totaling to Sh655 million while Equity Bank comes second, with a fine of Sh580 million.

UBL, Habib and African Banking Corporation, which has since been rebranded to BancABC, will pay Sh325 million, Sh175 million and Sh145 million respectively.