The National Bank of Ukraine has simplified procedures for sharing information between banks and the central government agency implementing the state’s policy for the prevention of legalization (laundering) of the proceeds from crime, terrorism financing, and financing of weapons of mass destruction (the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine).
Amendments to this effect have been set out in NBU Board Resolution No. 373 of 18 August 2016 On Approval of NBU Regulation On the Compilation of Files Intended for Information Sharing Purposes.
In particular, the resolution has approved new guidelines governing the compilation of files intended for information sharing purposes. These guidelines, inter alia, have:
Simplified the procedure for the creation of a fifteen-digit code used to identify the type of financial transaction by allowing banks to assign codes to the types of financial transactions automatically when compiling a message file;
- Set out requirements for a uniform format for account statements and payment card account statements.
- These amendments will facilitate freeing up banks’ human resources currently employed to manually perform the task of assigning codes to transactions. This will enable banks to channel more efforts into making the application of risk-based approaches more efficient when carrying out internal financial monitoring.
“This move was made possible thanks to the successful cooperation between representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, and the Independent Association of the Banks of Ukraine,” said Director of the Financial Monitoring Department Mr Ihor Bereza. “We are confident that further cooperation will enable implementation the Strategy for reforming the reporting framework in the area of financial monitoring. In particular, the Law of Ukraine On Prevention and Counteraction to Legalization (Laundering) of the Proceeds from Crime, Terrorism Financing, and Financing of Weapons of Mass Destruction needs to be amended by reducing criteria for a financial transaction to be subject to mandatory financial monitoring and enhancing the efficiency of internal financial monitoring through the application of risk-based approaches.”
The Resolution shall enter into force on the thirtieth day following the day of its official publication.