.PNG)
Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) continues to be an area of great interest to the insurance/reinsurance and non-banking credit market professionals. The third training held on January 26, gathered over 200 participants, interested in the latest trends and legislative amendments in the field.
The event concluded the AML/CFT series of trainings, launched by the National Commission for Financial Markets (NCFM) and USAID Moldova Financial Sector Transparency Activity (FSTA) in February 2022, to strengthen the capacities of professionals working in the field to effectively prevent and combat financial crime.
In her speech, the President of the NCFM, Cornelia Cozlovschi, mentioned that, in the contemporary economy, money laundering is a threat to the entire international community. "The money laundering and terrorist financing risk are a key concern for the financial system and citizens’ security. That's why we consider combating money laundering as an essential way of fighting corruption and legalization of illegal income", stressed the NCFM’s Chairwoman.
In his turn, the Director of the USAID FSTA Project, Matthew Macellaro mentioned the initiatives FSTA supports to improve the Moldovan financial sector’s transparency and efficiency, through state-of-the-art IT solutions implementation, staff training, and legal framework adjustment. "The money laundering phenomenon poses serious risks to the financial system’s integrity and stability. This is why strengthening the AML/CFT compliance capabilities is a priority for our project, and we are determined to continue supporting authorities and financial institutions to improve their response to money laundering threats", Matthew Macellaro pointed out.
"The development of an effective AML/CFT system and adjustment of the regulatory framework to international standards continue to concern the national authorities. Thus, following the amendments to Law no. 308/2017 on AML/CFT, we will focus more on the dialogue with the reporting entities, by organizing trainings adapted to their professional activities, increasing effectiveness, developing the involved institutions’ capacities, national and international cooperation, developing the national mechanism for supervising reporting entities and other areas of interest for the national AML/CFT system", Andrian Munteanu, deputy director of the Office for Prevention and Fight against Money Laundering (FIU) said in his welcome speech.
The January 26th training agenda included panel discussions and presentations addressing several current topics. During the first session, NCFM, FIU and National Bank of Moldova representatives discussed the trends and developments that are emerging in AML/CFT regulation in 2023. Afterward, experts from the USA and Lithuania spoke about transaction monitoring and red flags, presenting a number of best practices as well. For the first time, one of the panels was dedicated to industry representatives that had the opportunity to highlight the challenges they face when implementing AML/CFT requirements, as well as their expectations for authorities.
The new provisions regarding remote customer identification – a procedure also known as e-KYC (Electronic Know Your Customer) – was another topic of maximum interest. Participants actively engaged in discussions and asked questions about the new amendments, developed with the support of the USAID FSTA Project.
The event ended with an award ceremony, during which the participants of the three trainings received certificates.
