The Joint Forum of Supervisory Authorities and International Compliance Council “New Landscape of Risks and Threats: AML/CFT Compliance and Supervision” was held in Moscow on May 18-19 under the auspices of the Eurasian group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, with organizational support from the International Training and Methodology Centre for Financial Monitoring.
The Forum, moderated by Deputy Director of Rosfinmonitoring Galina Bobrysheva and Soat Rasulov of the EAG Secretariat, brought together representatives of financial intelligence units, supervisory authorities, and private sector organizations of Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and also CSTO and SCO RATS.
EAG Chairman Yury Chikhanchin said in his welcome remarks:
“I am happy that the Forum agenda focuses on the most pertinent and relevant development issues for our countries, such as government procurement, a key economic and social driver, and digital currencies that require a balancing act between risks and emerging opportunities for economic agents. Ensuring the effectiveness of our response to terrorism, narcotics trafficking, organized crime, and international laundering schemes is as important as ever.”
The Forum included several panel discussions on the fine-tuning of AML practices to address the risks of government procurement abuse; developing risk-based supervision; proper use of IT solutions for AML purposes; managing digital currency risks; and training financial security professionals.
Galina Bobrysheva, moderator: “Our objectives are to share the experience amassed in the past years on a new risks and threats landscape, and to try to look into the future. There should be no such thing as a ‘professional secret’ here because the biggest value that is key to an effective AML system – globally as well as nationally – is trust among government actors, business community and the public.”
First Deputy Director General of ITMCFM, Dr. Oleg Ivanov, speaking to financial security training and awareness projects:
“The focus is on creating the Sodruzhestvo digital platform, targeted for AML/CFT professionals as well as high-school students and undergraduates. I invite you all to co-develop expert-level AML/CFT and broader financial security content. One way to do this would be the Vse V Kurse (Everyone’s Aware) content-making contest, with the applications deadline of June 30.”
Key issues were actively debated in questions and interventions. The participants appreciated the right format and rich expertise as factors helping reach a new level of risk understanding and drive common mitigation approaches.