Recent years have seen a succession of cases involving international money laundering and funding for terrorists, and the risk that Japanese bank accounts might be used in such crimes has increased.
Because of the strong possibility that these crimes could lead to an increase in criminal proceeds and trigger other crimes, financial institutions are required to adopt Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures as soon as possible.
To curb such crimes, and maintain and enhance the reliability of its financial network as a social system, Mizuho has adopted measures to prevent crimes, such as remittance solicitation fraud and other unlawful use of accounts, as well as money laundering and funding for terrorists, as key management issues. To this end, it confirms the identities of people opening accounts and their reasons for doing so, and monitors account usage.
In addition to bank-wide activities centered on strengthening the compliance regime through close cooperation between head office and business offices, Mizuho has established specialist head office departments to monitor illicit use of accounts. For example, MHBK established a specialist Money Laundering Countermeasures Office in Jul 2008 to play a central role in these countermeasures.
When customers open accounts, business offices not only require them to confirm their identities in accordance with the Law*1, but ask them what the account is to be used for. They also hand out leaflets informing them that buying or selling accounts is a crime and adopt other measures to prevent accounts from being opened for money laundering and other illicit uses.
In Dec 2008, Mizuho became the first Japanese financial institution to introduce an advanced Anti Money Laundering (AML) monitoring system that had proved its worth at many banks in the United States and Europe. We have high expectations of this system, which is capable of comprehensively monitoring multiple accounts on a continuous basis. It automatically detects transactions that show up as abnormal when measured against certain rules governing the amounts and number of transactions. An additional function uses statistical methods to compare and analyze historical transaction patterns as a means of detecting suspicious accounts that may be involved in illicit transactions.
When this system detects such suspicious accounts, personnel from MHBK's Money Laundering Countermeasures Office who have received specialist training investigate them.
In the case where the results of an investigation lead to the conclusion that illicit use is likely to be involved, measures such as "reporting of suspicious transactions" under the Law*1 and other appropriate steps are taken.
With regard to the above, when it is judged quite likely that accounts have been used for remittance solicitation fraud, measures such as halting deposit transactions under the Law*2.
Through measures such as these, Mizuho will continue its proactive initiatives against financial crime, such as preventing money laundering, to maintain a financial network that customers can use with confidence.
