In the Central Bank’s recent “Dear CEO letter”, industry participants were reminded that it is important to keep abreast of current developments on international anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) standards.

On 12 October 2013 the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group (G20 ACWG) jointly convened an Experts’ Meeting on Corruption. Some of the key topics covered included the following:

FATF’s Best Practices Paper on the use of the FATF Recommendations to combat corruption

The participants acknowledged that the tools contained in the FATF Recommendations targeting money laundering and terrorist financing (the Recommendations) are powerful tools in the fight against corruption. The FATF’s draft best practices paper on how the Recommendations can be used to combat corruption was discussed. Feedback on the draft paper was sought and the final Best Practices paper was subsequently published on 18 October 2013.

Identifying key challenges in determining the beneficial ownership of legal persons and arrangements

The Recommendations require countries to take measures to ensure that adequate, accurate and timely information on the beneficial ownership and control of legal persons and arrangements can be obtained or accessed in a timely fashion by the competent authorities.

FATF noted that a lack of transparency on the beneficial ownership of legal persons and arrangements creates a serious obstacle to tracing corruption proceeds and neutralising corruption networks.

FATF has also indicated that it is currently in the process of exploring the possibility of developing guidance in this area to assist countries in improving the implementation of transparency and beneficial ownership requirements.

AML and CTF measures in the fight against crime

The Recommendations relating to customer due diligence, PEPs, record keeping and the transparency of the beneficial ownership of legal persons and arrangements were noted by FATF as particularly relevant to the fight against corruption and money laundering.

The Experts’ Meeting concluded by noting that the anti-corruption (AC) and AML/CTF national authorities should be in a position to cooperate on the above issues, allowing for synergies to be created. Examples discussed at the meeting included:

• Undertaking joint financial investigations for large cases
• Having senior prosecutors located on-site in law enforcement agencies
• Ensuring that AC and CTF/AML authorities are able to provide international cooperation
• Having relevant agencies enter into a memorandum of understanding or information sharing agreement