Russian authority up and running

The new Financial Monitoring Committee may yet secure Russia’s removal from the FATF NCCT list in June.Victor Zubkov, FMC chairman, who is also deputy finance minister, certainly hopes so. He signed a technical assistance agreement with the US Treasury on 4 April that will provide up to US$3 million to assist the new federal executive anti-laundering body. US Deputy Assistant Secretary to the Treasury, James Fall said that the US would help train FMC personnel, formulate a managerial philosophy, create an organisational structure and draft relevant legislation. The US Treasury will also support the committee’s bid to join the Egmont Group of financial intelligence units (FIUs). Russia Radio reports that Prime Minister, Mikhail Kasyanov confirmed a number of FMC-recommended regulations earlier this month. A federal executive body with investigative powers, the FMC comes under Finance Ministry authority and works closely with law enforcement. It commenced operations on 1 February, as mandated by the anti-money laundering law, since when it has received 40,000 suspicious activity reports.