OREANDA-NEWS.  Vladimir Putin visited the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring), where he chaired a meeting on  countering illegal financial operations in the banking sector.

In his address, the President said that a number of important measures had been taken in the past to develop legislation in this area. The law on countering illegal financial operations has come into force. Consistent action is taken to liquidate organisations that are engaged in money laundering. Financial organisations’ activities have become noticeably more transparent.

These efforts, Vladimir Putin said, were noted on the international arena as well. Thus, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has found the Russian system of counteracting the laundering of criminal profits and financing terrorism one of the best in the world. This year as it chairs the FATF Russia intends to enhance its partnership with other countries.

The President finds it important to consolidate the efforts of agencies responsible for countering illegal financial operations and to focus on preventive action. It is also essential to have regions of the Russian Federation take a more active part in this effort and to accelerate work to improve the normative legal base for counteracting illegal financial operations.

Before the meeting, the President toured the Rosfinmonitoring Centre for Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing, which was set up in June 2012 pursuant to the President’s Executive Order.