Center of Excellence in Anti-Money Laundering Invites Financial Market Participants to Contribute to Center‘s Activities

The Center of Excellence in Anti-Money Laundering, bringing together experts from the public and private sectors, invites financial technology (FinTech) companies, credit unions, other financial institutions, and national development agencies to contribute to the Center’s activities. The admission of new members will be gradual.

“This step embodies the consistent expansion of our activities. Since the Center’s inception, our goal has been to convene experts from both private and public sectors to collaborate across various facets of anti-money laundering efforts, fostering dialogue among financial market participants, law enforcement agencies, and regulatory bodies. Effective cooperation necessitates the engagement of different segments within the financial market landscape“, – says Eglė Lukošienė, the director of the Center of Excellence in Anti-Money Laundering.

The Center currently brings together experts from commercial banks, law enforcement agencies, and regulatory bodies, it is now poised to extend participation opportunities to a broader spectrum of financial market players. This initiative seeks to ensure that representatives across the financial spectrum share their insights on the Center’s platform, enabling swift identification of potential money laundering and terrorist financing risks and readiness for risk mitigation.

Mutual Opportunities

New entrants into the Center’s activities will have the chance to engage in Center-facilitated working groups focusing on Anti-Money Laundering, Sanctions Implementation, Fraud Prevention, and other pertinent domains. Active involvement is encouraged, entailing the sharing of expertise, identification of emerging financial crime suspicions and money laundering trends, collaborative exploration of effective prevention strategies with peers, and participation in educational endeavors to bolster the proficiency of anti-money laundering specialists.

According to E. Lukošienė, participation in Center initiatives represents a joint commitment from both public and private sectors toward forging a more secure financial ecosystem, enhancing the efficacy of anti-money laundering and terrorist financing prevention measures, ensuring judicious implementation of sanctions, and fostering competency development.

It is expected that the opportunity to discuss relevant issues with various experts, share experiences and practices, will provide financial market participants with additional insights and ideas on how to streamline their internal control procedures, implement new tools, and the dialogue within the financial market on one platform with representatives of the public sector will strengthen mutual understanding.

 Admission of New Members – Gradual Process

To sustain an effective collaborative framework within Center-coordinated working groups, the integration of new members will be methodically managed. Emphasis will be placed on ensuring seamless and high-quality integration, as the collaboration within Center groups is based on trust. Each newly onboarded financial market participant will be entitled to delegate 1-2 representatives to each Center working group.

The Center of Excellence in Anti-Money Laundering underscores that membership is open to financial market participants which are subjects to supervision by the Bank of Lithuania, provided they have held a Bank of Lithuania license for over 3 years or have been listed in the National Development Agencies roster for a similar duration.

For further details on opportunities, membership requirements, application procedures, and initial inquiries, please visit the Center’s website and navigate to the “Membership” section at: https://amlcenter.lt/naryste/.