Anti-money-laundering plan to increase Rosfinmonitoring’s role – Transparency International

Hands Opening Envelope Containing Cash

(Interfax – MOSCOW, June 27, 2013) Yelena Panfilova, the head of the Russian office of Transparency International, sees President Vladimir Putin’s statement on plans to draw up a national anti-money-laundering plan as a sign of strengthening the Financial Monitoring Agency’s (Rosfinmonitoring) functions.

“I believed that Rosfinmonitoring had been the one responsible for answering these problems all these years. Rosfinmonitoring does not have any other functions but to counter money laundering and control the movement of finances,” Panfilova told Interfax on Thursday.

She said she perceived Putin’s announcement as “reconfirmation of Rosfinmonitoring’s functions.”

The G8 and G20 meetings have addressed control over ultimate beneficiaries of trusts and funds, Panfilova said.

“It looks like the reconfirmation or even strengthening of Rosfinmonitoring’s mandate is part of this global approach toward all these problems,” she said.

Russia is actually ahead of some countries in some aspects in regards to combating money laundering and tax evasion, Panfilova said.

“As concerns technological control over the collection of bank information, we are even ahead of some countries. And Rosfinmonitoring also has a very good reputation when it comes to technological systems for tracking money,” she said.

Rosfinmonitoring should step up public accountability, Panfilova said. “In what areas are we lagging behind? Russia has not yet endorsed a list of public officials subject to stricter control. This all has been suspended here for unknown reasons,” she said.

Earlier on Thursday, Putin instructed Rosfinmonitoring chief Yury Chikhanchin to join the efforts on drawing up a national plan on combating money laundering and tax evasion and for keeping money inside of Russia.

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