FIU prepares for expanded role in anti-corruption fight

Nov 21, 2017 News

… Analyzing more suspicious ‘dirty transactions’ main focus

FIU Director, Matthew Langevine

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is expended to get additional staff in anticipation of a larger role in Guyana’s anti-corruption fight in 2018.
Mathew Langevine, who took up the appointment of Director of the FIU in September last, told Kaieteur News that the number of categories required to report suspicious transactions have increased, and so too, have the reports coming into the agency under Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime.
He quantified it as an increase of about 25-30 percent.
“The pool of reporting entities has increased substantially from what was reporting before, and yes, we have seen an increase in the reports, and that includes threshold transactions, which means each category must report transactions of a certain value,” Langevine stated.
The agency is expected to be able to detect ill-gotten monies, even if it is spread across various sectors of the economy. This is achieved through reporting entities who are required by law to pay special attention to all complex, unusual or large business transactions, whether completed or not, and to all unusual patterns of transactions which have no apparent economic or lawful purpose.
If there is suspicion that a transaction may constitute or relate to money laundering, proceeds of crime or terrorist financing, a reporting entity must promptly report the suspicious transaction to the FIU.
For instance, money transfer agencies must report any money transfer over $200,000 while a cambio dealer must report any purchase over $400,000; sale over one million dollars and any cash transaction over two million dollars.
Banks, Cambios, transfer agencies were initially required to report suspicious and above-threshold transactions. Added over the past year were the lottery sector, securities’ companies, auto dealers, real estate agents, precious metals (diamond) dealers and betting shops. The FIU plans outreaches with cooperatives and friendly societies with a view to have those groups start following the reporting process.
“Our focus moving forward, given the fact that you have most of the required entities reporting to us now, is increasing the pace by which we analyze the reports, because our work primarily is to receive and analyze the reports and take action against them where applicable,” the FIU head explained.
CASH-BASED ECONOMY CHALLENGES
Guyana is still primarily a cash-based economy which presents greater risks for money laundering.
“I believe the Government is cognizant of that, and efforts should be made to find ways to reduce the level of cash-based transactions, but that will not change overnight,” Langevine noted.
He noted that the training reporting entities receive and with the assistance of trained compliance officers, there are capabilities to track illegal money.
Langevine said that in the meantime, businesses must be on alert and create a customer profile. For instance, it should be suspicious if a single-parent teacher turns up to purchase a car with two million dollars.
“Every person should be profiled…the bank will recognize when your profile changes and would call you in to explain… and if they are not satisfied with the explanation they will report the transaction,” Langevine pointed out.

STAFFING NEEDS
Langevine stated that the agency has competent staffers, but has not been given the required complement of staff. The FIU head noted that they have made proposals, and hope that the request will be fulfilled early next year.
Currently, the agency is staffed by eight. There are two vacancies that have to be filled through the Parliamentary process.
“We are hoping to have a significant increase in complement based on our recommendations. Especially in the area of analytics,” Langevine expressed.
He said the additional staff is crucial for the agency to fulfill its mandate of intelligence-led financial investigations.
“While we have done quite some of those within the last 12 months, we hope to, with additional resources, ramp up the pace,” the FIU head noted.
He explained that through the Special Organized Crime Unit (SOCU), the FIU has been effective in moving quite a number of reports by effectively analyzing and prioritizing investigations.
The FIU, Langevine stated, continues to work closely with supervisory authorities (SAs) such as the Central Bank. He stated that the Unit also works closely with the Deeds Registry and the Guyana Revenue Authority.
“We are empowered to work with other competent agencies to build intelligence. The process of our work must be understood. In addition to the reporting entities, there are supervisory authorities and they are supposed to work directly with the sectors. For instance, the Central Bank works closely with the banking sector,” Langevine noted.
He pointed out that it is not the FIU’s mandate to police the various entities, but if the SA does not receive the reports they will reach out to reporting entities that they can sanction, which is quite diverse.
The FIU Director stated that given where the country was some years ago, Guyana has indeed made some strides within the past year in AML/CFT regime.
Langevine was recently appointed Head of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force’s (CFATF) Forum for Heads of the FIUs.