'House needs to revise antimoney-laundering law'

'House needs to revise antimoney-laundering law'

Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The House of Representatives (DPR) has to immediately revise
the current Antimoney-laundering Law if Indonesia wants to avoid
sanctions from developed nations and be taken off the list of
countries being billed as noncooperative in the international
struggle to stop money laundering, an analyst has said.

Yunus Husein, the chairman of the Financial Transaction and
Report Analysis Center (PPATK), said that failing to do so would
put the banking industry at great risk of suffering
countermeasures from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an
international antimoney laundering watchdog.

Speaking at a seminar on the subject on Thursday, Yunus said
that any countermeasures would shake public confidence in the
country's banking sector.

Countermeasures could include warning multinational
corporations to stay away from doing business with blacklisted
countries; forcing banks to collect detailed data before
conducting transactions with individuals or firms in those
countries; or making it difficult for banks to base their
business operations in those countries.

FATF is a Paris-based global organization that was set up in
1989 under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD).

Indonesia remains on the FATF's blacklist of uncooperative
nations, despite having successfully enacted an Antimoney-
laundering Law last year as a result of what many believe as the
country's lack of follow-up measures.

The passage of the law was seen as progress by the FATF, but a
revision of some of the clauses is still needed as they are
deemed uncommon by international standards, Yunus added.

The most profound one should be the current categorization of
suspicious transactions, which the Task Force finds unclear, he
said. The existing law stipulates that banks or other financial
institutions have to notify the authorities if they discover any
suspicious transactions of at least Rp 500 million (US$56,180).

The FATF questioned the limit, as it means that an
investigation could not be launched if the transactions were
below that amount, even if they are alleged to have been
generated from crime, Yunus added.

PPATK, which was established only months ago, is in charge of
analyzing and investigating reported suspicious transactions, and
the financial institutions and individuals who fail to report the
suspicious financial transactions.

Money laundering is the practice of converting money generated
from corruption, bribery, smuggling, embezzlement, drug-related
crimes, human trafficking, gambling and terrorism into legal
investments.

Although there is little on-the-ground evidence on money-
laundering activities here, Indonesia has long been regarded as a
safe haven for money launderers.

Elsewhere, Yunus said that the House had given a green light
to deliberate the amendments to the law in May.

In a related development, it was revealed at the seminar that
the police were investigating two financial transactions alleged
to be money laundering.

Brig. Gen Suyitno, of the National Police's economic and
special crimes unit, said that of the 11 reports that had been
submitted by the central bank, two required follow-up action.