HMRC and international regulatory colleagues meet with major money services businesses
International conference addressed issues around anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism, and other financial crimes.
As the UK’s representative on the International Supervisors Forum (ISF), HMRC took part in discussions last week in Washington DC with senior executives of three major international money services businesses (MSBs).
The ISF was established in 2013 by government regulatory agencies from the UK, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to address issues pertaining to anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, and other financial crimes. It also seeks to strengthen domestic and international compliance and supervisory regimes.
As an anti-money laundering supervisor of more than 26,000 businesses in the UK, including MSBs, HMRC plays an active part in this forum.
Hosted by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), this third annual conference saw ISF agencies engage with senior executives from Western Union, MoneyGram and Ria, who conduct business in each of the ISF countries.
Discussions focused on the ISF’s role and initiatives, transnational threats, information sharing, and the creation of an ongoing dialogue on prevalent compliance matters.
An HMRC spokesperson said:
Sharing information with our international regulatory peers, and engaging with international financial institutions are obvious and important steps to pursue.
The better we co-ordinate our public and private sector efforts to combat international financial criminals, the safer the global financial system will be.
Transnational efforts are essential to managing the continuing and changing threats posed by international money laundering and terrorist finance networks. ISF members have been formalising agreements that will allow for information to be shared on a consistent basis.
As a result, ISF members are working with their respective law enforcement agencies to share operational practices, methodologies, training, and to leverage resources to strengthen the international anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism community.
ISF members regulate a significant number of MSB entities that have a presence in some or all of the members’ jurisdictions. Moving forward, the ISF will work to co-ordinate compliance and enforcement activities on entities within the MSB industry.