Russian Duma Approves Far-Reaching Anti-Laundering Bill

by Tatiana Smolenskaya, Tax-News.com, Moscow

01 October 2002

The Moscow Times reported yesterday that the State Duma has approved tough amendments to the country's anti-money laundering laws requested by the FATF.

Following the 400-strong vote on Friday which saw the amendments passed unanimously, all that remains is for the new provisions to be approved by the upper house and signed into law by the President.

Although Russia adopted tougher anti-money laundering legislation last year which stipulated that banks, securities market participants, insurance firms, and leasing companies should suspend operations (for a period of up to two days) and consult with the Financial Monitoring Committee if they are suspicious about incoming funds, the FATF asked that the range of organisations required to report questionable transactions be extended.

Under the terms of the new amendments, therefore, investment funds, casinos, private pension funds, lottery firms, bookmakers, and companies which trade precious metals and gems are under the same reporting obligations as financial service providers.

However, the changes - which Russia hopes will be sufficient to secure removal from the FATF's blacklist of countries considered 'uncooperative' in the fight against money laundering - also give banks new powers to refuse to open accounts which they suspect will be used to launder funds, and to stop deals for the same reason.

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