Santo Domingo.-  Commercial Banks Association president Jose Manuel Lopez Valdez affirmed Tuesday that the financial sector is the one which has applied the toughest measures to protect against money laundering, making it difficult for funds from drug trafficking to enter its operations.

He said the banking sector, the savings and loans system and other institutions as well apply a series of dispositions which permanently assure that the funds they receive have a legitimate origin. “The basic origin of all resource in cash which enters a bank over 10,000 pesos is determined to see if it comes from good source or not.”

He said the preventive measures the banks have adopted have not only been over existent regulations, but also have bolstered the regulation in the anti laundering field.

Other measures

Lopez Valdez said the users are also vetted to determine if they meet the conditions for credit and the people are investigated through the bank’s mechanisms, so the money the banks grant is channeled towards sectors that adhere to the rules. “Something can but in most of the cases, more than 90 percent, the banks have a series of barriers which make it very difficult for the money laundering operations to penetrate.”