Samoa’s AML/CTF/CPF Efforts: Disrupting and Detering Financial Crime
APIA, SAMOA - The Samoa government has launched a new initiative to combat financial crime, including money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. The Money Laundering Prevention Task Force, established by the Ministry of Finance, aims to disrupt and deter these criminal activities through a multi-faceted approach.
The Challenge of Financial Crime
Experts agree that the fight against financial crime is not only a significant challenge for law enforcement agencies but also a costly endeavor for financial institutions. Many institutions have been shown to have failed to detect or report money laundering, with some even engaging in the practice themselves for profit.
Task Force Strategies
To combat this issue, the Task Force will provide training to its staff on money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. The agencies will also actively search their own data holdings for indicators of these crimes and share information with other agencies to facilitate disruption, deterrence, and prevention.
The Task Force has identified three key strategies to tackle financial crime:
- Detection: Identification of suspicious transactions and activities through regular monitoring and reporting
- Disruption: Use of legal and ethical means to target syndicates and entities involved in money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing
- Prevention: Development of strategies to stop others from engaging in these crimes
Testing and Improvement
The Task Force has also emphasized the importance of testing its systems regularly to ensure their effectiveness. This includes documenting testing procedures and corrective measures taken to address identified deficiencies.
Cooperation and Facilitators
Another key aspect of the initiative is cooperation among agencies with different powers, information, and skills. The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) will share information freely with other member agencies to provide intelligence on suspicious activities.
The Task Force has also identified facilitators of money laundering as a high-priority target for its efforts. These individuals or entities assist in the formation of companies or facilitate the laundering of proceeds from multiple predicate offenses.
Assessing Risks and Targeted Application
In addition, the initiative includes regular assessments of ML/TF/PF risks and targeted application of resources to known money laundering activities before moving on to lower-ordered risks.
Conclusion
The Samoa government’s AML/CTF/CPF efforts aim to create a robust system that is regularly tested and corrected to ensure its effectiveness in combating financial crime.