The National Bank of Tajikistan has completed a comprehensive inspection of Alif Bank’s activities in 2021-2022. As a result of the inspection, the bank has been fined and has been banned from conducting two types of banking transactions during three months.
The head of the bank, Ms. Gulanor Atobek, announced this on her Facebook page.
“Despite the fact that we are constantly working to eliminate the identified shortcomings, problems were identified during the inspection. We have already prepared the necessary plan for them and are looking for ways to fix these problems,” Ms. Atobek writes.
According to her, the inspection has shown that basically, the following shortcomings have been identified in the bank’s activities: cases of incorrect financial-and-accounting and currency exchange transactions; serious shortcomings in the process of legalization of funds; incorrect reporting on foreign exchange transactions; and incomplete documentation of some transactions.
As a result the national financial regulator has imposed a fine of 600,000 somonis on Alif Bank.
Besides, the bank has been banned from participating in legalization of money in accordance with the country’s law on amnesty allowing individuals to legalize their assets and money conducting, and conducting currency exchange transactions for companies, i.e. legal entities, during three months, with the exception of certain types of transactions.
“It should be noted that these restrictions do not apply to most of our customers,” Ms. Atobek noted.
According her, the bank ended last year with a net profit of 43 million somonis, “which is a historically record result.”
Founded in 2014 as microfinance institution, Alif Bank over the past nine years has developed into one of the leading fintech companies in the country, offering its clients an ecosystem of technological and financial solutions. With a full banking license in Tajikistan and a payments license in Uzbekistan, Alif has had over 800,000 users and a team of 800 professionals as of November 2, 2021. Its services include alif mobi (Tajikistan’s most widely used mobile wallet), Alif Salom and Alif A’zo (buy now, pay later system) and alif.shop (Tajikistan’s largest online marketplace).
