20.05.2013
Expert: Egmont Group fights money laundering regardless of political preferences
MINSK, 20 May (BelTA) – The Egmont Group (an informal international association of financial intelligence units) shares information to fight terrorism financing and money laundering regardless of political preferences. The statement was made by Hennie Verbeek-Kusters, head of the Financial Intelligence Unit of Netherlands, head of the Egmont Group’s working group for information technologies after a joint seminar of the Eurasian group on combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism (EAG) and the Egmont Group in Minsk on 20 May, BelTA has learned.
Hennie Verbeek-Kusters said that the Egmont Group tries to stay away from politics as far as possible. “We professionally enable cooperation and information exchange between financial intelligence units. In practice as long as the information we share via a secure network has not hit the streets as some compact disks as it sometimes happens, we will continue sharing the data whatever the political differences between various countries may be”. Data is shared in line with rules and recommendations of the Egmont Group. According to the expert, it is necessary to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism together, therefore information sharing does not depend on politics.
She pointed out the importance of holding the international seminar in Minsk. The seminar was held to share the experience of using information technologies for financial analysis for the sake of counteracting terrorism financing and money laundering. “We’d like to share experience, learn something new from each other, see what common things and different things we have in our work, what we can borrow while decisions will be made at the national level,” said Hennie Verbeek-Kusters. At present financial intelligence units of various countries are busy implementing a new edition of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations. The recommendations advise risk assessment using received information. Analysts of financial intelligence units often assess the information they receive about financial schemes using intuition and with considerable experience of fighting these phenomena. “Sometimes this knowledge of analysts stays in their heads while we need the knowledge to evolve into a system for all the financial intelligence units to benefit from it. With this in mind we work and hold such seminars,” stressed Hennie Verbeek-Kusters.
Boudewijn Verhelst, Chair of the Egmont Group, chief of the Belgian financial intelligence unit, also mentioned the importance of holding the seminar in Minsk. He noted that it was the first time he had been made familiar with the operation of the financial intelligence unit of Belarus and pointed out the active participation of the unit in international cooperation in fighting money laundering.
Hennie Verbeek-Kusters said that the Egmont Group tries to stay away from politics as far as possible. “We professionally enable cooperation and information exchange between financial intelligence units. In practice as long as the information we share via a secure network has not hit the streets as some compact disks as it sometimes happens, we will continue sharing the data whatever the political differences between various countries may be”. Data is shared in line with rules and recommendations of the Egmont Group. According to the expert, it is necessary to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism together, therefore information sharing does not depend on politics.
She pointed out the importance of holding the international seminar in Minsk. The seminar was held to share the experience of using information technologies for financial analysis for the sake of counteracting terrorism financing and money laundering. “We’d like to share experience, learn something new from each other, see what common things and different things we have in our work, what we can borrow while decisions will be made at the national level,” said Hennie Verbeek-Kusters. At present financial intelligence units of various countries are busy implementing a new edition of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations. The recommendations advise risk assessment using received information. Analysts of financial intelligence units often assess the information they receive about financial schemes using intuition and with considerable experience of fighting these phenomena. “Sometimes this knowledge of analysts stays in their heads while we need the knowledge to evolve into a system for all the financial intelligence units to benefit from it. With this in mind we work and hold such seminars,” stressed Hennie Verbeek-Kusters.
Boudewijn Verhelst, Chair of the Egmont Group, chief of the Belgian financial intelligence unit, also mentioned the importance of holding the seminar in Minsk. He noted that it was the first time he had been made familiar with the operation of the financial intelligence unit of Belarus and pointed out the active participation of the unit in international cooperation in fighting money laundering.