Français/English - Arab Banking Corporation, ALGERIA

Corporate Governance
l The Business Continuity Plan: It is responsible for developing
the plan and procedures for business continuity. It regularly tests
functioning of this plan.
l Implementation of internal control in the subsidiary ALC: The
scope of activity of internal control is extended to all related
companies (wholly or jointly controlled), thus it ensures the
implementation of systems control within the affiliate and
integrates the results of these checks in the periodic reports.
COMPLIANCE
ABC Algeria is fully committed to complying with all regulatory
provisions in force in Algeria and to adopting best practices and
the standards applicable to the finance sector. To do this, the
Compliance Officer is responsible for:
l drawing up and keeping updated the legal mechanism in force
within ABC Algeria;
l ensuring constant compliance of the acts and management of
the bank with this mechanism;
l carrying out compliance checks and providing assistance to the
bank’s different structures;
l implementing anti-money laundering and the financing of
terrorism actions;
l assuring that the procedures comply with the law and
regulations, before being approved by the Procedure Validation
Committee (compliance approval);
l informing the Ongoing Audit and Internal Audit Departments of
all laws or regulations (new text or update);
l coordinating the sending out of the annual internal control
report to the Bank of Algeria.
ABC Algeria has drafted policies and procedures containing
specific guidelines for its personnel in terms of compliance,
international sanctions, acceptance of customers, dealing with
complaints and claims made by customers and the correct
application of the laws in force and compliance with the strictest
standards. It has also adopted a Code of Conduct and Ethics which
contains all rules of ethics which can be imposed in the business
areas of the bank.
The Compliance Officer is also responsible for the “fighting against
money laundering and the financing of terrorism” function. He
is appointed Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) and
reports directly to the Group MLRO, to the Senior Management
and to the Board of Directors. His main tasks include notions
which consist of sending suspicious transaction reports to the
CTRF and putting in place the AML procedures, policies, controls
and systems as well as scheduling appropriate training for
employees. He is also in charge of assuring compliance with the
international principles on this matter.
This year, the Compliance/AML Department set about reinforcing
what has been learned from the previous years and contributing
to the implementation of new policies and procedures so that
the Bank can be protected against any threat or lack of noncompliance,
particularly after the promulgation of the new
Regulation 11-08 of 28 November 2011 on the internal audit
of banks and financial institutions, the Regulation 12-03 on the
prevention and the fight against money laundering and the
financing of terrorism and the Instruction 03-2012 establishing
the procedure as to the right to an account.
As audit today is everyone’s job, employees are regularly
informed as to the need to look into all the transactions carried
out by customers in order to identify those which are not part
of the normal activity of the customer. To do this, the bank has
intensified the training and awareness-raising actions of its
personnel by putting in place an ambitious programme which has
seen the organisation of five external training courses and ten
internal ones, including an on-line course on money laundering in
collaboration with the parent company and Thomson Reuters.
This year has also seen the intensification of compliance missions
in the branches inside the country; these missions are supported
by training courses on money laundering given to the employees
of these branches and the putting in place of new computer
applications such as the electronic KYC sheet and the warnings
reports on suspicious transactions.
INTERNAL AUDIT
The Internal Audit Department reports administratively to the
Managing Director and hierarchically to the Audit Committee of
ABC Algeria (sub-committee of the Board of Directors).
The extent of the internal audit works includes the examination
of the risk management procedures, the internal audit systems,
the information systems and the governance process in order to
achieve the goals and objectives fixed in its annual plan through
examining:
l the reliability and integrity of the financial information and
management tools;
l the mechanisms put in place to assure that the Bank complies
with the policies, procedures, laws and regulations and those
likely to have a significant impact on operations and reporting;
l the existence of the Bank’s assets and the means put in place
to protect them;
l the effectiveness of the risk management mechanisms;
l the effectiveness in the implementation of the
recommendations of the various audit bodies.
In addition to the local regulatory provisions as to internal audit
particularly the Regulation 11-08 of 28 November 2011 on the
internal audit of banks and financial institutions, the Internal
Audit Department adheres to the various codes, standards and
best professional practices of the Institute of Internal Auditors
(IIA) as well as the reports and recommendations of the Basel
Committee on Bank Audit.
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