EAG Public Statement on the results of the 14th Plenary meeting

On 14 – 17 June 2011 the 14th Plenary and Working groups meetings of the Eurasian group on combating money laundering and financing of terrorism (EAG) took place in Moscow.

The meeting was chaired by the EAG Chairman – Oleg Markov, and was attended by the representatives of member states and observers – more than twenty governments and international organizations involved in the international system of combating money laundering and financing of terrorism (AML/CFT).

Progress assessment of EAG member states in development of national AML/CFT systems:

Republic of Kazakhstan
The EAG notes a sufficient level of implementation of the key FATF requirements in the Republic of Kazakhstan in the functioning of the financial intelligence unit. Certain institutional and regulatory mechanisms are created in supervision and regulation, as well as in the framework of the law enforcement measures. In this regard, the Republic of Kazakhstan is placed on the regular follow-up procedure. Kazakhstan will provide a report on the implementation of the recommendations of the mutual evaluation in June 2013. The EAG urges Kazakhstan to continue strengthening its AML/CFT framework.

Republic of Tajikistan
The EAG notes significant progress of the Republic of Tajikistan in improving the national AML/CFT system, as well as the existence of the political will to further reforming of institutions and legislation in the field of AML/CFT. Primarily, the EAG welcomes the adoption of the basic AML/CFT law, which largely removes the concerns of the EAG in relation to the basic legal AML/CFT framework. Tajikistan should continue the work on improvement of national AML/CFT system.

Turkmenistan
The results of the mutual evaluation of Turkmenistan positively demonstrate significant progress in addressing a range of strategic recommendations in the AML/CFT system of this country. At the Plenary meeting the follow-up report of the Republic of Turkmenistan was presented. According to the report the EAG notes the progress made in the elimination of deficiencies in the field of customer due diligence, the criminalization of money laundering and work of the financial intelligence unit. The EAG urges Turkmenistan to continue strengthening its AML/CFT framework.

The approval of the mutual evaluation reports of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan signifies the completion the first round of mutual evaluations of the EAG, which lasted for four years - since June 2007.

At the 14th Plenary meeting the representatives of Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan signed the EAG Agreement. The Agreement establishes the status of the Eurasian group as an intergovernmental organization, which will function on the principles of equal participation of member states in the activities of the Group. In the nearest future India and Kazakhstan are planning to join the Agreement.

The results of the projects of the International training and methodology centre for financial monitoring, which are aimed at rendering methodological assistance to EAG member states to improve the legislation in the field of AML/CFT, the financial investigations techniques and training for specialists were presented at the meeting.

The participants of the Plenary meeting also discussed the plans of work of the Eurasian group for the period up to 2015, which allowed to identify further strategic priorities in the activities of the EAG.

Moscow, 17 June 2011