Results of the 35th EAG Plenary meeting

I.    General Information about EAG Plenary Meeting 

The meetings of the EAG Working Groups and the 35th Plenary Meeting of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG) were held in virtual format on November 11-12 and 18, 2021. The meetings were attended by the representatives of the EAG Member States, the FATF Secretariat, observer states and organisations of the Group.

The Plenary was chaired by the EAG Chairman Mr. Yury Chikhanchin (Russian Federation) and the EAG Deputy Chairperson Ms. Takhmina Salimova (Republic of Tajikistan).

The welcome address to the Plenary was provided by Mr. Alexei Overchuk, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.

II.    Key Issues of the Plenary Agenda

The Plenary elected Mr. Yury Chikhanchin (Russian Federation) the EAG Chairman and Mr. Dovran Khalbaev the EAG Deputy Chairman for 2022-2023. The Plenary approved the Chairman’s priorities for 2022-2023.

The Plenary heard the 3rd follow-up report of the Kyrgyz Republic without technical compliance re-rating under second round of the EAG mutual evaluations and noted the progress made by Kyrgyzstan in improvement of its national AML/CFT system. 

The Plenary agreed to arrange a high-level visit to the Kyrgyz Republic in order to ascertain the political commitment of the Kyrgyz Republic to adhere to these FATF Principles voluntary tax compliance programs.

The Plenary agreed to convene the next Forum of the Eurasian Group on AML/CFT that will be held in the Republic of Kazakhstan in early 2022.

The Plenary agreed to continue the work under the first round of ML/TF risk assessment in the Eurasian region. The Plenary passed the decision to amend the Methodology of ML/TF Risk Assessment in the Eurasian Region, and the revised Methodology will be available on publicly accessible part of the EAG website.

The Plenary took note of the information presented by the Republic of Kazakhstan on implementation by financial monitoring agencies of projects aimed at prevention of embezzlement and misappropriation of the state budget funds.

The Plenary approved the proposals on harmonization of the TA related documents and adopted the Rules on coordination of the Technical Assistance provided to the EAG Member States.

The Plenary was informed on the outcomes of the VII Supervisory Forum "Tools and mechanisms for application of risk-based approach in AML/CFT supervision" and the workshop on sharing experience of implementation of the FATF Standards requirements related to virtual assets.

The Plenary welcomed the results of the first International Financial Security Olympiad that was held at the initiative of the Russian Federation in May – November 2021. It was highlighted that such competitions contribute to improvement of general information, financial and legal literacy of young people of the EAG Member States by providing the most talented high school and university students with the opportunity to select their future professional careers through familiarization with new scientific and technology developments in this area.

The Plenary noted the important role of the International Network AML/CFT Institute and the ITMCFM as the core training organization of the CIS in preparation and holding the first International Financial Security Olympiad.

III.    Other issues

The Plenary expressed gratitude to the ITMCFM for the excellent organization of the 35th EAG Plenary Meeting and Meetings of the Working Groups in virtual format via videoconferencing.

The 36th EAG Plenary Meeting will be held in the Republic of Uzbekistan in May 2022.

EAG Secretariat