A meeting with supervisory authorities on preparations for the fifth round of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) mutual evaluations was convened under the chairmanship of Yury Chikhanchin, Director of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service.
The Rosfinmonitoring was represented by Galina Bobrysheva, Deputy Director, Olga Sholomitskaya, Head of the Supervisory Activities Department, and staff members from the agency's supervisory unit.
The participants included Bogdan Shablya, Head of the Financial Monitoring and Currency Inspection Service of the Bank of Russia; Maxim Beskhmelnitsyn, Deputy Minister of Justice of Russia; Alexander Mikhaylik, Deputy Head of the Federal Treasury of Russia; Dmitry Zamyshlyaev, Deputy Head of the Federal Assay Chamber of Russia; Olga Nosova, Director General of the Sodruzhestvo Self-Regulatory Organization of Auditors Association; Konstantin Korsik, President of the Federal Notarial Chamber; representatives of the Ministry of Finance of Russia, the Federal Tax Service of Russia, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media of Russia, the Federal Notarial Chamber, the Federal Chamber of Lawyers of Russia, and the International Training and Methodology Centre for Financial Monitoring (ITMCFM).
Yury Chikhanchin underscored the necessity of ensuring a high level of compliance within supervised sectors, reducing the size of the shadow economy, and intensifying efforts to prevent the criminalization of market participants.
"This is not for the first time Russia has received an on-site mission of assessors, but the task before us remains significant. Success can only be achieved through coordinated efforts across ministries and agencies. We must demonstrate the effectiveness of our anti-money laundering mechanisms to the international community," stressed the Director.
Galina Bobrysheva outlined the key organizational aspects of supervisory authorities' and the private sector's involvement in the FATF evaluation and the specifics of the upcoming round of mutual evaluations, with particular emphasis on strengthening international and interagency cooperation among supervisory authorities:
"We should be more proactive in demonstrating our best practices and achievements across various platforms. We are already engaged in multiple formats, including EAG working groups, annual supervisors' forums, compliance officer competitions, the International Movement on Financial Security, publications of the best supervisory practices, participation in studies, and so on."
Olga Sholomitskaya emphasized that, despite the significant progress made in addressing previously identified shortcomings, continued self-assessment remains necessary in light of recent changes to the Assessment Methodology. She also proposed a new framework for joint efforts going forward.
Oleg Ivanov, Acting Director of ITMCFM, highlighted the center’s potential role in training experts for the mutual evaluation process.
In the framework of the meeting, employees of VTB Bank were given awards by the Rosfinmonitoring.
