National Bank suggests tougher sanctions to curb money laundering

Moldova is making significant efforts to meet international requirements for combating money laundering in the banking system, stated National Bank Governor Dorin Dragutanu. “Moldova is a member of two major global organizations that seek to implement standards in the field, and I can say that our country has made significant progress in this regard. There are no signs of any any large money laundering operations going on in Moldova today, but the threat of smaller operations is always present, as long as there is corruption and tax evasion”, Dorin Dragutanu told a news conference. He said the National Bank continued working with commercial banks to increase their understanding of being a first-tier filter in the way of any suspect transaction. “We must avoid situations that happened in the past, when banks first processed a suspect transaction and then reported it to the Anticorruption Center. A bank must refuse such transactions from the very beginning”. The National Bank is suggesting that tougher sanctions should be introduced for the banks that fail to act as primary filters against money laundering operations, even in the case of smaller schemes.