The recommendations and new provisions of international bodies on preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CFT) were presented at an online workshop, organized during December 22 - 23, for the specialists from the National Bank of Moldova’s (NBM’s) specialized divisions. The workshop was organized with support from USAID Financial Sector Transparency Activity (FSTA), as part of a series of ongoing measures supported by the FSTA to empower Moldovan supervisors to prevent and combat financial crime.
Both training sessions were conducted by Milimo Moyo, an AML/CFT expert with 18 years of experience in the financial sector, which includes providing AML/CFT technical assistance to several central banks, commercial banks, regulators and financial intelligence units in various countries.
The aim of these trainings was to improve the methodological and operational capacities of the NBM’s specialists in assessing and identifying possible money laundering and/or terrorist financing offenses. Thus, the topics addressed concerned internal procedures review and audits, cooperation with other authorities, monitoring and reporting suspicious transactions, as well as the international sanctions for financial crimes.
The discussions also focused on internal AML/CFT risk assessments, the provisions of the new National AML/CFT Strategy for 2020-2025 and the compliance requirements that must be observed by supervisors and reporting entities. In this context, Milimo Moyo presented the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), emphasizing the importance of complying with the standards of this international evaluation organization in order to increase a country's level of credibility and investment attractiveness. In 2021, the FSTA will support the organization of several training sessions in this field for banks and other reporting entities representatives.
General background: According to the AML/CFT legislation in force, the NBM is responsible for the supervision of banks, payment service providers and foreign exchange offices.
