UNIAN
The visible effect of the NBU’s fight with “money-laundering banks” is that the main money laundering platforms have already abandoned the market, First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Oleksandr Pysaruk has said in an exclusive interview with UNIAN.
"The determination of the National Bank to fight the ‘laundries’ has not relented. Perhaps the visible effect of this struggle has decreased due to the fact that we have eliminated the main laundering platforms," Pysaruk said.
He said the National Bank of Ukraine had nevertheless stepped up its fight against money laundering.
At the same time, he said that with the decrease in the volume of transactions that may be related to money laundering in the banks of the third or fourth groups, this activity has been partly transferred to larger banks, where it is more difficult to uncover.
"We are working with major banks, helping to strengthen the financial monitoring service to keep track of such cases. We are tracking the migration of the convert-centers between the banks, sometimes this is discovered by the Fiscal Service. We're all working on it, trying to identify the convert-centers and preventing the opening of new ones. [But] it’s a complicated process.”
As UNIAN reported earlier, starting from February 6, a law came into effect in Ukraine that allows the liquidation of banks accused of money laundering activities according to a simplified procedure, within the framework of measures adopted against the legalization of income from crime.
In 2014, the NBU recognized 33 banks as insolvent, and the Individual Deposit Guarantee Fund introduced temporary administrations at them. Seven banks are accused of conducting, under the guise of legitimate banking transactions, operations that may be related to money laundering.