Results of the 37th EAG Plenary meeting

1. General Information about the EAG Plenary Meeting

The meetings of the EAG Working Groups and the 37^th Plenary meeting of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG) were held in hybrid format in Dushanbe (Republic of Tajikistan) on November 21-25, 2022. The meetings were attended by the representatives of the EAG Member States and observers, the FATF Members and Secretariat.

The Plenary was chaired by the EAG Chairman Mr. Yury Chikhanchin (Russian Federation) and the EAG Deputy Chairman Mr. Dovran Khalbaev (Turkmenistan).

The welcome address to the Plenary was made by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Tajikistan Mr. Usmonzoda Usmonali Yunusali.

2. Key Issues of the Plenary Agenda

The Plenary considered the 4^th follow-up report of the Kyrgyz Republic with the request to revise technical compliance ratings as part of the 2^nd round of the EAG mutual evaluations and noted the progress made by the country in improving its AML/CFT system. It was agreed to upgrade the rating of one of the FATF Recommendations. The next follow-up report will be presented at the 39^th EAG Plenary.

The Plenary considered the 1^st follow-up report of the Republic of Belarus without technical compliance re-rating under the 2^nd round of the EAG mutual evaluations and noted the progress made by country in development of its national AML/CFT system.

The Plenary adopted the EAG Work Plan for 2023.

The Plenary agreed upon the Amendments to the Procedures of the EAG 2nd round of mutual evaluations and the Rules of Procedure for EAG Plenary and Working Group meeting.

The Plenary elected co-chairs for all three working groups for 2022-2024.

The Plenary approved the results of the typology project on the topic: "Laundering of the proceeds from tax and economic crimes", led by the Kyrgyz Republic, as well as the typology project on the topic: “Legalization (laundering) of the proceeds of cybercrime, as well as financing of terrorism from the said offence, including through the use of electronic money or virtual assets and the infrastructure of their providers", led by the Russian Federation.

The Plenary approved the plan to minimise regional ML/TF risks in the Eurasian region, the concept notes and the commencement of the following typologies projects: under the lead of the Russian Federation, one of the priorities of the Russian Chairmanship in the EAG, the project on "Monitoring the risks of use of virtual currencies for criminal purposes", and under the leadership of the Republic of India, the project on "Laundering of the proceeds from corruption offences and crimes against the interests of public service".

The Plenary approved the timeline of the Projects on development of methodological guidelines on risk assessment and application of risk-based approach in the supervision of NPO - till November 2023, on development of guidelines for sectoral ML/TF risk assessment - till May 2023.

The Plenary approved the Technical Assistance (TA) Plans for the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Republic of Belarus. The Plenary approved the extension of the TA Plan for the Republic of Tajikistan till 2024. The role of the ITMCFM as a leading donor in the implementation of the TA project plans for the EAG Member States was noted.

The Plenary positively noted the results of the Forum of Parliamentarians of the EAG Member States, which was held on 23 November 2022, and approved the final declaration of the participants.

The Plenary positively noted the outcomes of the second Forum of the Eurasian Group on AML/CFT, which was held in Nur-Sultan (Republic of Kazakhstan) on 19-20 July 2022 for the representatives of law enforcement authorities and financial intelligence units of the EAG Member States. Also took note of the information about the outcomes of the Joint CIS ATC/ITMCFM training and Joint EAG/CIS ATC/ITMCFM/OSCE workshop on combating terrorism financing, held in Bishkek (Kyrgyz Republic) on 9-11 November 2022.

The Plenary approved the Regulation on the EAG Contest among compliance officers of financial institutions from EAG Member States for the best AML/CFT financial analysis and the best example of risk profile. The awarding of the winners and runners-up of the first Eurasian Group Contest among financial institutions took place.

Within the framework of the Plenary the annual Contest for the best cooperation between the competent authorities in the field of AML/CFT took place. The Republic of Belarus became the winner of the 9th Contest, the laureates were the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Tajikistan.

The Plenary positively noted the outcomes of the Second International Financial Security Olympiad that was held on the initiative of the Russian Federation from May to October 2022. The International Forum on Financial Security "Sirius-2022", which took place on the margins of the Olympiad, included a sectional conference on "Improving financial literacy of population and protecting citizens from illegal financial market participants" involving representatives of banking supervisors of EAG Member States. An important role of the Government of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, the International Network AML/CFT Institute, the ITMCFM and the EAG Secretariat in preparation and holding of the International Olympiad on Financial Security was noted.

In order to strengthen the expert capacity of the EAG Member States the workshop on the updated FATF Standards and Methodology was conducted within the EAG Plenary week.

3. Other Issues

The Plenary expressed gratitude to the Republic of Tajikistan for the hospitality and excellent organization of the 37^th EAG Plenary and its working groups meetings.

The 38^th EAG Plenary meeting will be held in the Republic of Kazakhstan in June 2023.

EAG Secretariat