Russia’s financial regulator maintains that its anti-money laundering system, including strengthened virtual currency regulations, remains effective even if the country faces potential blacklisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The agency highlighted new federal laws addressing previous concerns and stressed that no significant deficiencies exist that would justify Russia’s inclusion on the FATF blacklist, set for review this month.
Russia’s Financial System Under FATF Scrutiny
Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring) emphasized that its anti-money laundering system will continue operating effectively, even if the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) decides to add the country to its blacklist. One area of concern raised in previous assessments involved the regulation of virtual currencies, but Rosfinmonitoring insists these issues have been addressed.
The regulator stated, as reported by Tass:
The Russian Federation’s rating for three FATF recommendations was raised, and only for one was it lowered to the level of ‘Partial Compliance’ (due to insufficient legislative regulation of the sphere of circulation of virtual currencies).
However, Rosfinmonitoring noted that since the assessments, Russia has taken steps to strengthen its regulatory framework by adopting two federal laws to regulate digital currencies.
The regulator added:
Moreover, we note that since then, two federal laws regulating the circulation of digital currencies have already been adopted in the Russian Federation.
Rosfinmonitoring explained that despite these earlier concerns, the system overall has no “strategic shortcomings,” which are typically required for inclusion on FATF’s blacklist.
FATF is an intergovernmental organization that sets global standards for anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism. Russia’s potential blacklisting will be discussed during the FATF plenary session from October 21-25.
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