The Center of Excellence in Anti-Money Laundering Expands Activities – INVEGA Joins to Share Expertise

The Center of Excellence in Anti-Money Laundering and the sole National Promotional Institution INVEGA has signed a membership agreement. By providing promotional financing services to companies in Lithuania, INVEGA has accumulated a wealth of knowledge and experience that will help shape more effective best practices and higher AML standards nationwide.

“By becoming our members, different financial market participants contribute their unique input to strengthening AML efforts – their experience and knowledge help to more accurately assess the issues in different segments. INVEGA’s experience working with a wide range of businesses will also provide new insights and strengthen the formation of effective AML prevention standards,” said Eglė Lukošienė, CEO of the Center of Excellence in Anti-Money Laundering.

“INVEGA, providing financial services, conducts AML and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) activities and implements international sanctions. To ensure that the funds administered by INVEGA are used properly, we continuously improve our customer due diligence process. Participation in the Centre’s activities will help maintain dialogue with other financial market participants and law enforcement and supervisory authorities. This collaboration and mutual learning will contribute to creating a safer financial system,” said Dainius Vilčinskas, CEO of INVEGA.

The Centre brings together representatives from commercial banks, law enforcement, and supervisory authorities. Since March of this year, opportunities have been created for a wider range of financial market participants to join its activities. The aim is to ensure that different financial market participants share their experience in the Centre’s coordinated collaboration formats, allowing for quicker identification of potential money laundering and terrorist financing risks and preparation for their management.

New members joining the Centre’s activities will be able to participate in the Centre’s coordinated AML, sanctions implementation, and fraud prevention working groups, as well as other working groups. They must be ready to actively engage – presenting their experience, identifying new suspected financial crime and money laundering trends, seeking effective prevention measures together with colleagues during discussions, and participating in educational events to strengthen AML specialists’ competencies.

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 make their internal control procedures more effective, implement new tools, and enhance mutual understanding and cooperation with the public sector representatives on one platform, thereby developing more effective AML measures.

The AML Competence Centre notes that financial market participants supervised by the Bank of Lithuania and those who have held a license issued by the Bank of Lithuania for more than 3 years or have been listed in the National Promotional Institutions list for more than 3 years can apply for membership.