RI must set up anti-money laundering agency: Official
RI must set up anti-money laundering agency: Official
A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia had yet to be removed from a blacklist of countries
accused of being safe havens for dirty money, as it had still
failed to comply with requirements imposed by the anti-money
laundering Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a central bank
official said on Monday.
"An anti-money laundering agency has not been established here
although it has been demanded by the international task force,"
Bank Indonesia deputy director Yunus Husein said.
Yunus was discussing recent comments by the Paris-based task
force that Indonesia was still not cooperating with the world's
anti-money laundering drive.
Yunus acknowledged, however, that Indonesia, which is
desperately trying to restore foreign investor confidence, had
made significant progress in the anti-money laundering drive. It
had successfully passed an anti-money laundering law, which had
been welcomed by the international community.
Last August, or four month after the law was approved by
president Megawati Soekarnoputri, Bank Indonesia swiftly embarked
on tighter banking supervision and found 40 financial
transactions at seven banks, which were allegedly connected with
money laundering.
Two were foreign banks and the remainder were local banks.
Yunus said the steps were not enough to restore foreign
confidence and remove Indonesia from the blacklist.
"The international community is waiting for more comprehensive
implementation of the anti-money laundering law," Yunus said.
He said the establishment of the anti-money laundering agency,
to be called the Financial Transaction and Report Analysis Center
(PPATK), would be a focal point before Indonesia could be removed
from the blacklist.
The agency would be of high importance as it would be in
charge of analyzing and investigating reported suspicious
transactions, as well as individuals and financial institutions
which failed to report suspicious financial transactions.
The agency was supposed to be established last August.
"The decision rests in the hands of President Megawati," said
Yunus.
Money laundering is the practice of converting money generated
from corruption, bribery, smuggling, banking-related crimes,
drug-related crimes, human trafficking and terrorism into legal
investments.
FATF is an international organization, which is vested with
power to take steps against governments included on the
blacklist. The steps included warning multinational corporations
from doing business in those countries and forcing banks to
collect detailed information before conducting transactions with
individuals or companies in those countries.
Indonesia and 14 other countries are blacklisted by the
international agency.
The countries are the Cook Islands, Dominica, Egypt, Grenada,
Guatemala, the Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Nauru, Nigeria, Niue,
the Philippines, Russia, St. Vincent, the Grenadines and Ukraine.