On the Meeting of the Interagency Commission on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism

For the first time, the representatives of the Republic of Belarus participated in the Meeting of the Russian Interagency Commission on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT Commission) held on March, 23. Based on an initiative of Yury Chikhanchin, the Head of Rosfinmonitoring, it was supported by Oleg Markov, the EAG Chairman.

The participants of the meeting included Vladimir Nechaev, Aide to the First Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, elected in 2009 as MONEYVAL Chairman, experts of Rosfinmonitoring, the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, law enforcement and supervisory agencies, Bank of Russia and other government authorities.

On behalf of the Republic of Belarus, the list of participants included Valery Yaroshevsky, EAG Deputy Chairman and Director of the Financial Monitoring Department of the State Control Committee of Belarus, as well as representatives of the FIU, National Bank, Ministry of Home Affairs, KGB, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, General Prosecutor’s Office and State Customs Committee of the Republic of Belarus.

Participation of Belarus in the meeting was organized remotely through a secure channel video conference system. 

The agenda of the meeting comprised an overview of the most relevant international AML/CFT initiatives, in particular, the FATF information on non-cooperative and high risk jurisdictions approved at the latest Plenary, as well as the results of the MONEYVAL Plenary, in the course of which, among other issues, a MONEYVAL/EAG joint typologies workshop was discussed.

The participants of the meeting drew attention to the problem of trans-border cash transfers and cash instrument regulation within the customs union comprising the EAG member states Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. The meeting resulted in a decision to implement SR IX in the legislative framework of the customs union.

According to Igor Nebyvaev, the EAG Executive Secretary, successfully implementing international standards will enhance AML/CFT cooperation of the EAG member states and will surely increase customs regulation effectiveness in the Eurasian region.
The EAG hopes to continue coordinating its member states through video conferences, enhancing their practical interaction and involving more counterparties.

At present, the video conference system implemented as part of the EAG Single Information Space connects the EAG Secretariat, Financial Monitoring Department of the State Control Committee of Belarus and International Training and Methodology Centre of Financial Monitoring of the Russian Federation. It is anticipated that all EAG member states will be connected to the video conference system in due time.