Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 15 November (BelTA) - Belarus is an active participant of the international anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) system, Chairman of Belarus’ State Control Committee Leonid Anfimov said at a plenary meeting of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG) in Minsk on 15 November, BelTA has learned.

“We highly appreciate the activities of the EAG and the support it provides to Belarus to strengthen its national anti-money laundering system. We are happy to host the event of such important organization in Minsk. Belarus has always supported the fight against money-laundering and financing of terrorism. The country is an active participant of the international system to counter these threats. I hope that the results of the EAG Plenary Week in Minsk will serve to strengthen cooperation between the countries of the Eurasian region in counteracting money-laundering and financing of terrorism and will make a significant contribution to the common safe economic space,” Leonid Anfimov said.

He also read out a greeting from the Belarusian prime minister to the participants of the meeting and noted that the meeting will facilitate the exchange of experiences and best practices.

According to him, the inflow of dirty money in any country inevitably disrupts the normal functioning of the economy, creates distortions on the financial markets, speeds up inflation, destabilizes the work of business entities. It can also become the basis for corruption, failures in the control system. “It is important to keep up with the times or be one step ahead by improving the system of control over finances and promoting international cooperation. The rapid development of information technologies has posed new challenges and threats. The latest example is crypto assets and virtual currency, which requires taking adequate measures,” Leonid Anfimov said.

The Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism is an international intergovernmental organization. It was founded in 2004 to ensure effective cooperation at the regional level and the integration of the EAG member states into the international system of combating money laundering and financing of terrorism in accordance with generally accepted international standards. The EAG includes nine member states: Belarus, India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The plenary session in Minsk gathered about 250 participants from the EAG member states, and also states and international organizations that have observer status in the organization. The event will help prepare Belarus for the international assessment of the national anti-money laundering system for the compliance with international standards in 2018–2019. The main stage of the assessment is scheduled for March 2019, the time when EAG experts are expected to visit Belarus. The results of the assessment may have an impact on the further operation of the country’s financial system. Positive assessment will help improve the country’s credit and other ratings. The previous assessment of the national anti-laundering system of Belarus was carried out 10 years ago and produced positive results in general.

Belarus is hosting the EAG Plenary Week for the second time. Minsk played host to the first forum in 2013. Belarus is represented in the group by the Department for Financial Monitoring of the State Control Committee of Belarus, which is the main organizer of the events.

The efforts to combat money laundering and finance terrorism are based on 40 recommendations of the FATF (Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering), which are a mandatory document for implementation by all states. In the event of non-compliance, such states face procedures of enhanced monitoring or included into the FATF black and gray lists.

The agenda of the plenary session in Minsk included the results of the EAG assessment of the anti money-laundering system of Tajikistan, and also a report on the progress in Kyrgyzstan.