YOURSAY | ‘Now that Malaysia is on the financial bad list, we can forget about foreign direct investments.’

US banks deem Malaysia a 'high-risk money laundering' destination

US banks didn’t act on ‘suspicious’ Jho Low, 1MDB-linked transfers until too late, leak shows

GajahDuduk: A lot of due diligence seems to be like a bureaucratic process rather than real investigations, and understandably so. The main business of banks isn't fraud detection.

Criminals now know that they should not send round large numbers and state some "real" economic purpose. That should be easy enough to do.

Why not automatically submit all transactions to the central bank, suspicious or not, and let them do the proper data mining, detection, investigation, et cetera?

The current system seems like a solution designed to not solve the problem.

Blind Pay: Yes, banks have all sorts of red tape and nonsense documentation for small transactions made by the average Joe. Yet they can slip up on all these illicit transactions in big amounts made by big crooks.

Again, different sets of rules and laws in effect.

WhiteQuokka4162: Three years ago, during Chinese New Year, my wife wanted to send US$50 (RM209) "ang pow" money to our daughter.

My wife experienced so much inconvenience. There were many documents that needed to be signed, and we have to show proof that our daughter is studying in the US and show all the necessary documents before the bank would wire the US$50.

So, when you say money laundering through banks; with such strict laws and verification, it is not easy to launder money unless different laws apply to different people.

Well Thats Fantastic: So now banks are ramping up their "due diligence" by calling and harassing business customers with over two decades of transaction history.

It is fairly obvious they are trying to increase the numbers of investigations carried out so they can then say they have been doing their due diligence. We all know it's rubbish.

We aren't transacting with foreign bank accounts to the tune of hundreds of thousands or millions of US dollars. We are operating the way we always have - by providing jobs and spending in the local economy.

How are we ordinary people a target when the news is reporting these millions of dollars not being properly investigated?

VS: Our former prime minister and his top political and business cronies are allegedly major money launderers in Malaysia.

Bank Negara claims they have excellent governors and it regulates bank operations in a very professional and efficient manner with expert advisers. See the end result. We have been flagged for our incompetence.

1MDB transactions by the billions were passing to and fro from the country's banking system without a query. Only when the case came up, everyone woke up.

Jackal Way: Bank Negara boleh tutup (can close) for its lack of capability to monitor and investigate all these money laundering cases in the country.

One typical case is 1MDB when billions can go in and out without any question being asked.

IndigoTrout2522: Once an Asian tiger, Malaysia is now a suspected money-laundering country. That is a drastic change.

Malaysia needs a clean government that the international community can have faith to do business with and to increase investments in this country.

Falcon: Wow, we are famous! Malu apa (what’s there to be ashamed of)? Cash is king.

So are the bourgeoisie lifestyles of Malaysian politicians, their families and their hangers-on, all not the result of intelligence, hard work, integrity and merit.

Enjoy the country’s newfound fame.

Olxrev: The headline - US banks deem Malaysia a 'high-risk money laundering' destination - says it all.

No wonder overseas countries look at Malaysia as a third world country. We can never move forward if corruption is widely practised.

Most of the well-known brands don't recognise Malaysia as a shipping destination. Only Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and et cetera. This shows how bad our country is seen from outside.

Cyclonus: Thank you Bossku and family for their hard work in making Malaysia what it is today.

Thank you, BN, for enabling the Bossku’s family to enrich themselves and the cronies at the expense of the Malaysian rakyat.

So now that Malaysia is on the financial bad list, we can forget about foreign direct investments. Our government bonds are worth slightly more than banana leaves.

Anonymous_7180953: US, look at international bank Goldman Sachs first and the rest of the criminal financial advisers in America.

You steal our money and blame our banks.

Hrrmph: Malaysia should never have let Goldman Sachs off so easily. The large banks in the world are the true enablers of money laundering. They provide the mechanisms for money to move around and they have the expertise to identify suspect funds.

If the checks were better at their end, criminals would find it very difficult to indulge in the kind of lifestyle that is the object of their nefarious activities.

Malaysia could have gone down in world history for making banks more responsible for money laundering. After the closure of Swedish banks, who knows what can be accomplished. But we cave in, in the name of expediency.

No true cause can ever be rightly fought without strive and effort. No achievement can be great if we leave the battlefield without much sweat. We received a small prize but let the champion trophy got away.

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