90% of financial institutions in Russia are law-abiding – Kommersant

Russian President Vladimir Putin held meeting with Director of the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring (Rosfinmonitoring) Yuri Chikhanchin. They discussed issues of combating illegal activities in the financial sector and international cooperation on this issue, including the suspension of Russia’s membership in the International Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

“Our activities at the FATF site have been suspended; we are only allowed to work in the regional Eurasian group, which besides us includes China, India, the Central Asian republics, and Belarus. But we still manage to prove that this is a technical platform, and the Russian Federation meets all standards from the point of view of the national anti-money laundering system,” Mr. Chikhanchin told the president. FATF suspended Russia’s membership in the organization on February 24, 2022, the day the military operation in Ukraine began.

The head of Rosfinmonitoring drew attention to the fact that a similar situation is developing at the second international platform “Egmont” (which unites financial intelligence services from 166 countries). Group announced on the suspension of Rosfinmonitoring’s membership in October 2023. “Our membership was suspended and we were disconnected from the Egmont network, which does not allow us to receive the requested information online. But we are looking for other options,” noted Yuri Chikhanchin. According to him, the exclusion of Russia from international organizations “only benefits the criminal world.”

Speaking about the activities of Russian departments to combat crimes in the financial sector, Mr. Chikhanchin emphasized that about 90% of the country’s financial institutions are “law-abiding.” “This year alone, we managed to prevent about 320 billion rubles from entering the shadow circulation. This is thanks to joint actions with the Central Bank and the fact that they created the Know Your Client mechanism together with us,” he said.

Over the past year, according to Yuri Chikhanchin, ten shadow sites with a turnover of 28 billion rubles were liquidated, and 11 billion rubles were collected from the budget. Also, according to Yuri Chikhanchin, it was possible to stop 14 financial pyramids, 380 criminal cases were initiated against the organizers and participants of these transactions, and a seizure of 2 billion rubles was imposed.

Mr. Chikhanchin emphasized that there have been significantly fewer crimes in the area of ​​state defense procurement. “This year we managed to save 6.5 billion rubles. But most importantly, we have achieved a reduction in overdue accounts receivable. Together with the Ministry of Defense, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the FSB, it has decreased three times since 2020; this year alone, 43 large contracts were closed – for a total of 50 billion rubles,” he pointed out.

Read about whether Russia needs to create its own analogue of FATF in the Kommersant FM article. “A circle of friends has been outlined in the fight against money laundering”.