FIU-IND signs MoU with RBI for closer ties to combat money laundering

New Delhi, April 17 (IANS) The Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) here on Thursday as part of continued efforts to strengthen coordination for the effective implementation of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and Rules framed thereunder.

According to the MoU, the FIU-IND and the RBI will cooperate with each other in the areas of mutual interest including the sharing of relevant intelligence and information, available in their respective databases.

Each party to the MoU will appoint a nodal officer and an alternate nodal officer to interact with the other party.

The MoU also provides for laying down the procedure and manner in which the regulated entities report to the FIU-IND under the PML Rules.

It provides for conducting outreach and training for regulated /reporting entities and upgradation of Anti-Money Laundering/Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) skills in the reporting entities regulated by the RBI.

The two orgainsations will also undertake assessment of Money Laundering/Terror Financing (ML/TF) risks and vulnerabilities in the relevant financial sub-sectors.

The MOU also provides for the identification of red flag indicators for suspicious transactions by the RBI and the FIU-IND.

Besides, the MoU provides for supervising and monitoring the compliance of reporting entities regulated by the RBI with their obligations under PMLA, PML Rules, and RBI instructions.

Compliance with the relevant international standards has also been stipulated in the MoU.

The RBI and FIU-IND are also required to conduct quarterly meetings to discuss and share information on issues of mutual interest.

The MoU was signed by Vivek Aggarwal, Director, FIU-IND and R.L.K. Rao, Executive Director, Department of Regulation, RBI.

Bedobani Chaudhuri, Additional Director, FIU-IND, Veena Srivastava, Chief General Manager, Department of Regulation, RBI; Avinash Kumar, Deputy Director, FIU-IND and Sanjoy Ghosh, FSE, FIU-IND, were also present on the occasion.

Financial Intelligence Unit - India (FIU-IND) is the central, national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analysing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions to enforcement agencies and foreign FIUs.

--IANS

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