DAR ES SALAAM, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's central bank on Monday fined five commercial banks a total of about 800,000 U.S. dollars for breaching the anti-money laundering regulations.

A statement by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) said the five banks failed to conduct proper customer due diligence and file suspicious transaction reports to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

The statement mentioned the five banks as the African Banking Corporation Limited which was fined 145 million Tanzanian shillings (about 63,200 U.S. dollars) and Equity Bank (Tanzania) Limited that was fined 580 million shillings.

Other fined banks were I&M Bank Limited that was fined 655 million shillings, UBL Bank Limited 325 million shillings and Habib African Bank Limited 175 million shillings, said the statement.

In additional to the penalties, said the statement, the banks have been directed to implement a number of corrective measures within three months from the date the penalties were imposed.

The statement said the measures included making a fresh review of all Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance status and ensure that proper documentations were in place and reporting suspicious transactions which were ought to be reported to the FIU.

Other measures were making an assessment of adequacy of internal controls and taking necessary steps to ensure controls were robust to deter noted weaknesses and taking disciplinary steps to all staff who were involved in opening of implicated deposit accounts contrary to KYC requirements, said the statement.

"The Bank of Tanzania wishes to remind all banks and financial institutions to ensure compliance with laws, regulations and directives issued at all times," said the statement. Enditem

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