The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) warned on Friday that it will be taking action against businesses and individuals who conduct official transactions through personal or third-party bank accounts, alleging the practice \u201cappears to be intended to evade oversight by tax authorities\u201d and could involve proceeds from criminal activity.<\/p>\n
Central bank regulators say that a large number of business entities and individual traders are complicit in conducting official transactions through personal or third-party accounts, bypassing their registered business bank accounts.<\/p>\n
To address the issue, the bank has instructed all financial institutions to collect and report data on customers\u2014especially business organizations and traders\u2014who are found using personal or third-party accounts for commercial operations. The move, the NBE said, is part of efforts \u201cto safeguard the soundness and integrity of the financial system and the broader economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement comes just days after newly-minted NBE Governor Eyob Tekalign issued a \u201cfinal warning\u201d to remittance providers suspected of involvement in illegal activity, and announced the NBE is embarking on a coordinated crackdown on money laundering and terrorism financing.<\/p>\n
The Governor called on the public to refrain from using informal remittance channels.<\/p>\n
\u201cTransfers from illicit entities will be identified and accounted for,\u201d said Eyob, a former State Minister of Finance who replaced Mamo Mihretu at the helm of the NBE last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe National Bank will not hesitate to take action. Action is not limited to closing accounts. A wide operation that includes beneficiaries and agents has already begun and will move toward coordinated enforcement,\u201d said the Governor.<\/p>\n
Enforcement will presumably be conducted in line with the recently ratified anti-money laundering and asset recovery proclamations.<\/p>\n
The Asset Recovery Proclamation ratified by Parliament in January 2025 allows authorities to seize any asset with a value exceeding ten million Birr that lacks proper documentation, including movable and immovable property, money, legal instruments, securities, shares, and virtual assets, among others.<\/p>\n
The law retroactively applies to assets acquired up to ten years before its enactment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) warned on Friday that it will be taking action against businesses and individuals who conduct official transactions through personal or third-party bank accounts, alleging the practice \u201cappears to be intended to evade oversight by tax authorities\u201d and could involve proceeds from criminal activity. Central bank regulators say that a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":47524,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1935,1960],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-47523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest-ethiopian-business-news","8":"category-latest-news-in-ethiopia"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}