Caleb M Fundanga: The role of the banking sector in combating money laundering A paper presented by Dr Caleb M Fundanga, Governor of the Bank of Zambia, at a seminar organised by the C and N Centre for Advanced International Studies, Lusaka, Zambia, 23 January 2003. *  *  *  Mr Chairman Distinguished Guests Ladies and Gentlemen Allow me first of all to thank you for inviting me to address you on this topic of great importance to the development of our financial system in Zambia – “the role of the banking sector in combating money laundering”. I have every reason to believe that your training in the last couple of days has provided an opportunity for you to share with the resource persons valuable insights on the subjects you have covered. Mr Chairman, the scourge of money laundering is not new to mankind. Despite money laundering being topical in policy discussions nowadays and on the minds of supervisors and regulators like the Bank of Zambia, the scourge itself has a long history and could be as old as the history of organised trade. Nonetheless, in spite of the fundamentals of the crime remaining, largely, the same as in the olden days, recent advances in technology and globalisation have offered and will continue to offer more sophisticated means to convert ill-gotten proceeds into legally acceptable financial assets. In recent times, money laundering has grown into real big business.
Ladies and gentlemen, As you know, financial inclusion has become an important factor in economic efficiency and social equity, and international organizations have, for nearly a decade, underlined its importance and the need for public authorities to adopt national strategies for financial inclusion. The World Bank considers financial inclusion as a key factor for poverty alleviation and has set itself the goal of achieving universal access to 2  financial services by 2020. Under this framework, it targets 25 priority countries, including Morocco. To this end, it launched in 2012 the Financial Inclusion Support Framework (FISF), aligned with the Maya Declaration, to support the implementation of country commitments. For its part, the G20 has made financial inclusion one of its working themes, and in 2009 established an expert group who drew up the nine Core Principles for Innovative Financial Inclusion. In 2010, the G20 launched the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion, including all G20 countries and interested non-G20 countries. This partnership helps strengthen coordination and collaboration between the various national and international stakeholders through its three key Implementing Partners: the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Certainly, all these organizations, to name but a few, and policy-makers are aware of the increasingly critical role of data and its impact on the efficiency of the decision-making process, from the design phase to monitoring and evaluation.