Anti-Money Laundering Regulation And Practices (A Case Study On Commercial Banks Of Nepal)

Abstract

The purpose of Anti-money laundering Regulation (AML) is to detect and deter money laundering activities. In order to prevent the misuse of banks for money laundering activities, the AML obligation mandates banks to identify and report suspicious and large value transactions and follow know your customer requirements. Nepal Rasta Bank (NRB) has taken measures to enforce AML implementation in banks. To properly implement the regulations and follow the guidelines and fight against money laundering activities employees of banks plays key role. Hence this thesis has been attempted by the researcher to examine the awareness level, attitudes and opinion towards AML regulations practices of employees. The main purpose of this study is to find out the level of awareness, attitude towards anti-money laundering regulations and perception towards the practices of AML regulations of bank employees, and if their awareness level, attitudes towards AML regulations and opinion on AML practice by banks differ on the basis of their demographic factors i.e. gender, age, educational qualification, type of bank employee works in, job position and work experience. Banks plays key role in monitoring financial transactions of public. Banks in the process of financial intermediation are challenged with risk of money laundering. So, the employees of banks must be aware of money laundering issues, rules and regulations and have positive attitude towards AML regulations for proper implementation. The study is mainly based on primary data and the study is conducted to employees of private and public banks. The research is in descriptive nature. Questionnaires were distributed to 131 respondents to employees of different banks inside Kathmandu valley. The major variables are anti-money laundering awareness, attitudes towards money laundering regulations and opinion about anti-money laundering practices by banks. These identified variables were analyzed on the basis of demographic variable of employees which include age, gender, educational qualification, type of bank, job position and work experience. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS software. To examine the anti-money laundering regulations descriptive analysis, calculation of means and non-parametric test were used. From the study, it was found that awareness level and attitude of banks’ employees on AML regulations is more than average. Opinion of banks’ employees on practice of AML regulation is also more than average. This implies that employees of banks are well aware and have positive attitudes towards of money laundering activities and their opinion on AML practices by banks on AML regulation are also positive. The study has found that there is no significant difference in AML awareness level and opinion of AML practices of male and female employees of bank. However, attitude towards AML regulation is different between male and female employees and male have more positive attitudes towards AML regulations. There is no difference in the AML awareness level, attitudes towards money laundering regulations activities and opinion about AML practices in terms of type of banks, educational qualification, job position and work experience of employees. The findings of study are similar to the previous studies. Past studies have found that employees are aware and have positive attitude towards anti-money laundering regulations. Employees have a good knowledge and understanding about the direct regulations of the law and are supportive for implementation of AML regulations. Study is also similar that male and female employees have disparate cross-section of attitudes towards law and its implementation.