Five leading Sri Lankan banks fined for violating exchange control rules

DFCC, Bank of Ceylon, People’s Bank, National Development Bank (NDB) and National Savings Bank (NSB)  have been fined by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Central Bank for various violations under the Financial Transactions Reporting Act, No. 6 of 2006 (FTRA) the banking regulator said on Monday.

DFCC was fined Rs.4 million, Bank of Ceylon Rs. 3 million, People’s Bank Rs.2 million, NDB Rs.1 million and NSB Rs.750,000, as per statement.

As Sri Lanka’s regulator for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), the FIU collected penalties amounting to Rs. 10.75 million in total from 1 July 2022 to 16 November 2022 to enforce compliance on Financial Institutions. The money collected as penalties were credited to the Consolidated Fund.

The administrative penalties were imposed for failure to adhere to directions issued by the FIU; for failure to screen all existing business relationships to ensure that no business relationship is held by or linked to any of the entities or individuals included in the designated list as the bank had been maintaining business relationship with persons who are designated under United Nations Regulations No. 1 of 2012; and failure to maintain all relevant United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) lists of designated persons and entities as the bank did not maintain lists that included the designated persons and entities.