On Tuesday, September 29, the Cabinet approved the Ministry of the Interior's updated “Plan of Measures for the Prevention of Money Laundering, Terrorism and Proliferation Financing for the period 2020-2022”.
The update of the plan has been carried out following the publication of THE MONEYVAL Latvia post-control report on 22 January 2020 and the assessment of Latvia's effectiveness NILLTPFN confirmed by the FATF plenary in February 2020. Recommendations have also been received from other international organisations, including the OECD and Foreign Investors Councils, which continue to emphasise the need to strengthen the capacity of law enforcement authorities. . In the light of the recommendations made in the above assessments, the plan was amended accordingly.
The plan also includes measures that make it easier for law-holders to comply with the anti-money laundering requirements. .
Guidelines on identified risks and recommended risk mitigation measures will be updated, as well as the carrying out of risk assessments to simplify money laundering procedures and reduce the administrative burden on customers, as well as to avoid situations where customers are unduly refused banking services.
It is also intended to introduce FID data collection and analysis, including the goAML system, while phasing out the parallel suspicious transaction reporting system and ensuring that a single channel is used for reporting information on suspicious transactions to FID and SRS. . This will result in simplified procedures for reporting suspicious transactions.
The Know your client (KYC) system will be introduced and developed to allow a simple and unburdensome verification of available information on potential counterparties before the transaction is closed.
It is intended to continue the publication of free data from the Enterprise Register, launched on 7 January 2020, including information on the true beneficiaries.
In order to raise public awareness of economic and financial crime, an educational seminar on “Money Law Days” will be organised and information will be provided in the information room on NILLTPFN issues. . This measure updates and maintains the own-initiative content channel “MONEYVAL” created by the LV portal, as well as the essential regulatory enactments and other documents in THE FIELD OF NILLTPFN are translated to and from English or other required languages.
It has already been reported that the government had previously decided that a new financial sector development plan would be drawn up for the period from 2021, following a decision on whether Latvia has shown sufficient progress in the fight against NILLTFN and not included in the so-called “grey list”. (in addition to information: https://lvportals.lv/norises/313822-top-new-financial-sector-attiba-plans-expropriation-non-commercial-2020)
Prepared by:
Maris Zarins
Ministry of Interior
Head of the Communications departament
Phone.: 67219213
Mob.: 29120858
E-mail: maris.zarins@iem.gov.lv