Latin American banks turn to Swift for crime compliance
The lies stop here
Eight central banks in Latin America have adopted Swift’s financial crime compliance solutions to combat financial crime.
The central banks of Belize, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti and Paraguay, have implemented the solutions, including Swift’s KYC registry and sanctions screening.
Some of the banks have also endorsed the adoption of the KYC registry across their entire jurisdictions. As a result of this regional effort, Swift says the number of institutions adopting its tools in the region has nearly doubled in less than 12 months.
Giorgio Trettenero, secretary general, FELABAN (Latin American Bank Association), says correspondent banking relationships “play a crucial role in the economic development of Latin American countries”, so the region needs to “enhance transparency and build greater trust amongst all stakeholders including governments, correspondent banks, as well as national and international regulators”.
According to Swift, the trend of de-risking – the decision taken by banks to partially or fully exit certain jurisdictions, product domains and currencies by exiting their foreign correspondent banking relationships – has been pervasive in recent years. It says Latin America has been one of the most affected regions.
