Chiranjibi Nepal: The economic importance and key role of banks in combating money laundering and terrorism finance

Address by Dr Chiranjibi Nepal, Governor of the Central Bank of Nepal (Nepal Rastra Bank), at the "Anti-Money Laundering Conference - 4th Annual Summit (Nepal) 2019", Kathmandu, 1 February 2019.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

1. It gives me a great pleasure to deliver my address at the opening ceremony of this conference on Anti Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT). I would like to congratulate the National Banking Institute as well as other concerned International Agencies for organizing such an important program on a topical issue.

2. As is well known, the impact of money laundering and terrorism financing to the financial institutions and financial system has serious implications to the overall financial system, which jeopardizes socio-economic development for the country. At the global level, the IMF estimated the extent of money laundering to be around 2% to 5% of global GDP. A country's rating on compliance with standards set by Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on AML/CFT, is often considered as a key measure of the country's AML/CFT regime. An unfavorable rating would mean that the businesses, including financial institutions, would face greater scrutiny, higher costs of doing business, delays and other time consuming including unnecessary barriers when doing business with overseas counterparts.