MALAYSIA: BANK NEGARA REPORTING ACTIONS AGAINST

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUALA LUMPUR 001006 SIPDIS STATE FOR ISN STATE FOR EEB/ESC STATE FOR NEA STATE FOR EAP STATE FOR T TREASURY FOR TDORSETT TREASURY FOR JFOWLER E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/17/2019 TAGS: KNNP EFIN ETRD ETTC PINR PTER SUBJECT: MALAYSIA: BANK NEGARA REPORTING ACTIONS AGAINST NORTH KOREAN ND IRANIAN PROLIFERATION ACCOUNTS REF: KUALA LUMP 991 Classified By: Acting DCM Matt Matthews for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) In a December 16 phone call, Bank Negara (BN) Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) Manager Abdul Rahman Abu Bakar (Rahman) told econoff that FIU is preparing reports on Malaysian bank actions to curtail activity or close North Korean and Iranian nationals, accounts. The FIU plans to provide its U.S. Treasury Department counterparts at FinCen with a summary of actions taken against North Koreans' accounts and will submit the report to FinCen before the end of the year. Rahman said that a significant number of Malaysian banks had taken action to close North Korean accounts. He gave an example that RHB Bank had reviewed all of their accounts with North Korean nationals and closed half of them (about 30 accounts). Other banks, including Malaysia,s two largest banks Maybank and CIMB Bank, have also responded to the FIU circular and closed or curtailed North Korean accounts. ¶2. (C) Rahman also discussed Iran related accounts stating that CIMB and Maybank have submitted all related account information to the FIU on the Iranian companies identified by Treasury in November. The FIU is preparing a report on accounts related to the Iranian companies for FinCen to be ready by mid January. CIMB and Maybank have already curtailed activity in all of the identified accounts and are moving to close them (ref A). The report will be a more detailed summary than the North Korean report, but will not include specific account transactions. FinCen will need to request release of the individual account statements after receipt of the FIU report to get transaction-level detail. KEITH