The National Bank of Ukraine has sent 24 letters to the law enforcement agencies informing them about suspicious financial transactions that customers of 41 bank have performed or intended to perform. In particular, in July alone, information about customers of 11 banks was passed on to the law enforcement agancies.

The NBU provided the law enforcement agencies with information, mostly pertaining to large-value cash transactions performed by bank customers, as well as transactions  involving the transfer of funds abroad  that can be indicative of taking capital out of the country.  

“Putting in place a procedure enabling  the NBU to analyze financial transacations performed by banking institutions and banks’ enhanced compliance with the know-your-customer rules started to yield positive results. It became much more difficult to perform sham transactions and fraudsters seek to use more complicated and intricate schemes. The regulator is engaged in continuous dialogue with the market to combat such corrupt practices. Thus, last Friday  the Independent Association of the Banks of Ukraine hosted a regular meeting to discuss challenges currently facing banks  in the area of financial monitoring,” said Director of the Financial Monitoring Department Mr Ihor Bereza.

The NBU cooperates with the law enforcement authorities in accordance with the requirements of applicable laws.  In particular, information that may be indicative of organized criminal activities is passed on by the Financial Monitoring Department to the special law enforcement agencies that will use it to detect, stop and prevent such activities.

In 2016, banks have become more efficient in combatting sham FX transactions due to a comprehensive analysis and a thorough verification of information about customers’ financial transactions.