One of the main Bank’s objectives is to provide the banking services to individuals and companies – residents and non-residents, in particular: carrying out domestic and international payments, foreign exchange, surety- credit insurance, trade financing, loan facilities, factoring, and so forth.
Montenegro is a part of the Balkan route – the main trade corridor, where among others, also the criminal activities occurs such as: drug trafficking, human trafficking, etc. In the countries of the wider region, revenues from these activities are sometimes "launder" through certain schemes by private companies, in some cases even by public enterprises.
One of the main priorities of the bank operations is to create an efficient internal Transactions Monitoring System aiming at the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing. International legislation, the European Union law and the laws of Montenegro (the Law on Prevention of Money laundering and terrorism financing, with sub-legislation acts see: Zakon o sprječavanju pranja novca i finansiranja terorizma, sa podzakonskim aktima),make the Bank obligated to build and maintain such a system that will contribute to the total monitoring of financial transactions and provide the support so that a part of revenues from criminal activities, i.e. a part of revenues for financing terrorist activities will not end up in legal cash flows in Montenegro or abroad.
The bank would like to highlight that performing the clients’ financial transactions – especially of the non-residents clients – make a significant source of its revenues. On the other hand, the bank very thoroughly examines all data concerning such operations, with the aim to understand and establish a client’s ownership structure, characteristics of a client’s business, as well as to comprehensively understand the structure, objectives and results of certain transactions, and all above mentioned in accordance with the main rule relating to the financial monitoring – "Know Your Client".
For the practical implementation of preventing the money laundering and terrorism financing, the Bank has made the adequate programs and procedures relating to the identification and monitoring of customer's business relationship in accordance with the laws of Montenegro and the European Union directives regulating this area. Accordingly, the Bank has introduced the Department for the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing.
Furthermore, the bank has implemented a modern information system, which, in terms of the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing, is designed for the automation of the financial monitoring process, as well as for the monitoring from the restrictive measures’ point of view.