Egmont Group: SICCFIN official conducts training in Malaysia

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The Egmont Group¹ organised a training session on strategic analysis from 23 to 27 October 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The session, requested by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)² Asia/Pacific Group and funded thanks to a voluntary contribution from Taiwan’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), brought together 27 participants drawn primarily from Asian FIUs, including Malaysia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Macao, Mongolia, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Fiji and Vanuatu. A representative from the Isle of Man also attended.

The training focused on strategic analysis, one of the missions undertaken by FIUs in their work to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. It was delivered by a member of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN, the US FIU) and by Romain Bugnicourt from the Service d'Information et de Contrôle sur les Circuits Financiers (SICCFIN, Monaco’s FIU).

Strategic analysis, which countries are obliged to put in place, is defined at the global level by FATF standards. It involves using data and information provided by professionals subject to Act No. 1.362 dated 3 August 2009, as well as that available on public and private databases, to identify threats and vulnerabilities linked to money laundering and terrorist financing. The goal is, primarily, to help develop policies and targets to overcome these weaknesses.

This is the second time that the Egmont Group has called on SICCFIN’s skills to lead a training session. Romain Bugnicourt previously spoke in Morocco.

¹ The Egmont Group: The Egmont Group is an international forum established in 1995 at the initiative of the Belgian Financial Intelligence Processing Unit (CTIF) and FinCEN. It brings together, at the global level, the authorities responsible for receiving and processing reports of suspected money laundering and terrorist financing. The Egmont Group currently has 156 members.

² In response to growing concerns over money laundering, the Financial Action Task Force was created at the G7 Summit in Paris in 1989. It is made up of members of the G7, the European Commission and eight other countries. Its aims are to develop standards and promote the effective application of legislative, regulatory and operational measures to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and related threats to ensure the integrity of the international financial system. The FATF has developed a series of recommendations recognised as the international standard in combatting money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. They are intended to be applied by all countries throughout the world. The FATF’s decision-making body, the Plenary, meets three times a year.