The National Bank of Ukraine (the NBU) continues to provide law enforcement authorities with information that may be indicative of organized criminal activities and can be used to detect, stop, and prevent such activities.
The information was obtained during compliance monitoring inspections and inspections on compliance with currency laws (hereinafter – currency control).
Thus, during the nine months of 2018, the NBU sent information[1] to the Security Service of Ukraine regarding 36 banks and 8 non-bank financial institutions:
- based on the results of compliance monitoring, the NBU sent 29 letters to law enforcement authorities to report on suspicious financial transactions by bank customers totaling over UAH 54.5 billion, USD 68.1 million, and EUR 9.4 million;
- based on the results of currency control, the NBU sent 11[2 letters to law enforcement authorities about large-scale financial transactions of bank customers for the total amount of more than UAH 58.8 million, USD 315.2 million, EUR 1.6 million, and RUR 57.2 million in order to implement the state policy in the field of combating organized crime.
Also, during the nine months of 2018, the NBU sent five notifications on suspicious financial transactions to the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine.
The information sent to law enforcement authorities was largely about bank customers’ financial transactions whose nature or consequences might relate them to capital withdrawal, legalization of criminal proceeds, conversion of cashless funds into cash, fictitious entrepreneurship, and tax evasion.
The Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL) in its report dated 30 January 2018 confirmed that Ukraine is a reliable jurisdiction in combating money laundering and terrorist financing, and emphasized the high level of regulatory and supervisory activities in the banking sector.
[1] Pursuant to Article 18 of the Law of Ukraine On the Procedural and Legal Framework for Combating Organized Crime.
[2] That includes 5 letters that contain information on the results of inspections on compliance monitoring and currency control and are included in the number of letters mentioned above that the NBU sent to the Security Service of Ukraine based on the results of the compliance monitoring inspections.