Banks’ deferential treatment towards powerful and influential people is one of the reasons money laundering has risen in the country in recent years, India’s largest bank’s compliance chief said on Tuesday. State Bank of India’s Group Compliance Officer Soma Sankar Prasad also stressed that India ‘unfortunately’ had no distinct norms in place for ‘politically exposed persons’ opening bank accounts. Responding to a query on how banks should treat politically exposed persons, the senior SBI official said: “Unfortunately, we don’t have this concept to check for ‘politically exposed persons’ in India. “The compliance culture in the frontline staff of the banks in India is still very poor and they don’t have the compliance awareness they should have. We give them training, [make them] pass an exam and share stories about how money laundering is done so that they become more aware,” Mr. Prasad said.

Source: The Hindu December 29, 2020 17:26 UTC