Head of Rosfinmonitoring Yury Chikhanchin has something to be proud of: Russia has surpassed the Isle of Man in combatting money laundering.
Photo: Nikolay Cyiganov
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Russian Money Laundering Reaches Level of Canada
Of 49 recommendations of the Financial Action Task Forces to fight money laundering, Russia failed to comply with three of them. Ten recommendations were fully met, 13 were largely met, and 21 partially met. Two were not applicable. Although the FATF does not officially give ratings, unofficially, Russia is not the same level as Canada and Italy, according to Rosfinmonitoring. That is an improvement from it former ranking with the Isle of Man.
The FATF found fault with Russian foreign financial organizations’ branches abroad, with alternative payment systems (payment terminals) and with control over physical transportation of money across the border. “There is no specific requirement to inform the Russian regulator when a foreign branch, subsidiary or representative office is unable to observe appropriate anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism measures,” the FATF specifies. “Payment acceptance service providers were not covered by supervisory regime until 2007, therefore effectiveness of their compliance with anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism rules cannot be determined.”
Bank representatives disagree with the organization’s assessment. “The Central Bank’s control over Russian banks’ entry overseas is strict enough,” Vladimir Missarzhevsky, head of the department of foreign subsidiaries of the Bank of Moscow. “On the territory of other states, the activities of the subsidiaries of Russian banks should be controlled by local regulators.” Terminal operators know what the FATF does not like. “The current edition of the law onbanking activities allows non-bank organizations to provide several banking activities. That could seem uncouth to the FATF,” noted Boris Kim, chairman of the committee on payment systems and banking instruments of the National Association of Prticipants in Electronic Trade.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 04, 2008
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