The Bank of Thailand, together with 11 supervised business associations, signed a cooperative framework to prevent illicit transactions in the financial sector, known as the Framework for Safeguarding the Financial Sector from Illicit Activities, aimed at proactively preventing the financial sector from being used as a tool or channel to support any type of illegal activity. Vitai Ratanakorn, Governor of the Bank of Thailand, said the framework requires all agencies to set direction, policy, and corporate governance for preventing misuse of the financial system, with minimum standards appropriate to each business, and to continuously improve measures to keep pace with changing contexts. Participating agencies will apply their expertise in data, technology, and capabilities to monitor, detect, and respond to risks, and to exchange information, knowledge, patterns of wrongdoing, warning signals, and best practices among themselves. The businesses that established this framework comprise 11 agencies: the Thai Bankers' Association, the Association of International Banks, the Government Financial Institutions Association, the Thai E-Payment Association, the Thai Foreign Exchange and Financial Services Association, plus six other associations and clubs of non-commercial bank business groups. Together they will raise the level of KYC, CDD, and EDD, scrutinize high-risk cash transactions, adopt advanced technology to proactively detect abnormal transactions, develop a database of high-risk individuals and connect it to the Central Fraud Registry, produce an industry AML/CFT manual, and use community networks to build financial immunity for vulnerable groups. Chatchai Sirilai, Manager of the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, in his capacity as Chairman of the Government Financial Institutions Association, stated that state financial institutions will build financial and digital immunity for the public through community networks, especially the elderly, farmers, and vulnerable groups, while raising the level of KYC, CDD, and EDD through cooperation among the association, the Thai Bankers' Association, the government sector, and related sectors.
BAAC's manager is cited as chairman of the association group signing the AML/CFT framework, but no specific impact on BAAC is described.
