business continuity across and beyond the confinement period. while serving customers was a priority, the bank also saw to it that all required sanitary protocols were adhered to in order to protect both the public at large and employees in the banking industry. 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches the bank of mauritius too initiated several measures to ensure the safety and health of its employees whilst also ensuring that operations were maintained. with a view to mitigating propagation risks, a work from home strategy was implemented in august 2021. currently, around 30 per cent of staff are working from home and we see to it that the disinfection of the bank ’ s premises is conducted on a weekly basis. thinking and working as a team and making no compromise on our staff ’ s safety has allowed all functions to be operational during the pandemic. the bank ’ s internal covid protocol is being continuously adjusted in the light of latest information on the evolution of the coronavirus. ladies and gentlemen, digitalisation and distributed work arrangements may be the answer to some of the pressing challenges that organisations are facing in the wake of the covid - 19 induced disruption. the pandemic has in effect accelerated the shift towards technology - driven and sustainable processes. it is a fact that no enterprise, no organisation, or country can aspire to sustained growth without a healthy, skilled and motivated workforce. this is justly why i am fully committed to enabling the bank ’ s staff to acquire the necessary skills and provide them with the most appropriate tools and work environment. the objective is to ensure that the bank can continue to seamlessly deliver on its statutory objectives even in worse case scenarios. i know that, just like the banking industry has endeavoured to come to the rescue of the economy, all of you too, as human resource leaders, have played a key role in tackling resourcing and efficiency challenges posed by the pandemic. it is important that due tribute be paid to you for devising solutions to maintain business continuity and to help employees cope both professionally and psychologically with this unprecedented crisis. covid 19 has indeed changed the experience of work for the vast majority of employees. it has forced organisations, both locally and across the globe, to revisit how work is organised and how jobs are designed. another consequence of the pandemic is that the potential for fractures between employee groups has also increased. an example of such fractures is that there now exist groups of people who can work from home and those who

identified and to allocate our resources to areas that have the greatest impact in the fight against financial crime. while traditionally the financial sector was seen as the most vulnerable sector to ml / tf risks, in the face of heightened regulatory focus and more advanced aml / cft legislation and procedures governing this sector, money launderers started to resort to the nonfinancial sector to conceal their proceeds of crime. in response, the fatf increased its focus on the designated non - financial businesses and professions ( dnfbps ) that have similar potential to financial institutions to be used for money laundering. casinos, real estate agents, dealers in precious metals and stones, barristers, attorneys, notaries, accountants and trust and company service providers – referred to as the dnfbps in the fatf standards – are, since may 2019, subject to the same aml / cft requirements and preventive measures as financial institutions regulated by the bank of mauritius and the financial services commission. the need to enhance the regulatory and supervisory capabilities of the aml / cft supervisors of dnfbps can, thus, only be underscored. ladies and gentlemen, the scale and complexity of evolving financial products and technologies bring along new risks. to identify, evaluate, mitigate and monitor those risks, operators in the financial and non - financial sectors alike have to put in place robust risk management systems and ensure they are periodically upgraded. obviously regulators and supervisors have to keep pace with the rapid evolution of risk associated with new services, technologies and products. these require new resources and regular upgrading of skills both among supervisors of the financial and non - financial sectors. risk - based supervision is gradually taking precedence in aml / cft supervisors ’ approach around the globe. this approach is evidently much more data - centric and thus more demanding technically. risk - based supervisory frameworks require aml / cft supervisors to continuously identify, understand, assess and monitor the risk profiles of their licensees. these institutions are monitored both for compliance with the rules and how they approach and adopt risk management. ladies and gentlemen, let me now say a few words on what the bank of mauritius has been doing on aml / cft in recent year. the implementation of the risk - based approach was one of the key recommendations of the mutual evaluation report of 2018 to enhance the effectiveness of the aml / cft system. the bank of mauritius has spared no effort to set up an aml / cft