The central bank of Kenya has ordered Absa Bank Kenya to stop foreign exchange dealing between April 9 and April 15 for failing to observe anti-money laundering rules on some trades, the regulator said.
In investigating these and other earlier transactions it is evident that Absa Kenya did not have satisfactory assurance of the underlying commercial transactions supporting these trades, as is required, nor did the bank ensure the standard checks on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) and know-your-customer (KYC) requirements were applied.
The central bank said it took action over some foreign exchange trades Absa Bank carried out in March, and said Absa also failed to satisfactorily make “know your customer checks” in the trades.
“Absa Kenya is required to reverse the market positions that were created as a result of the flagged transactions,” the central bank said in a statement
