23/05/2005

The money laundering regulation

Since Latvia join the EU on May 1 st 2004, the country keeps harmonizing its laws, especially those in the banking sector. The last law enforced concerns money Laundering.

With the trauma caused by 9/11, the international community and the European Union have put laws under way in order to have a greater control on international money transfer and on the identity of the owner of the funds. These laws aim at preventing terrorist organizations to be financed through money laundering.

Joining the EU, Riga was then asked to insert these rules in the national banking code. Recently, the US government said it had a few concerns regarding the origin of Russian funds held by two Latvian banks, which made the change towards these new rules even faster.

What will this change for FBS Banking?

FBS Banking is checking on a daily basis the stability and outlook of its partners thanks to serious research and reports from famous institutions (notation agencies such as Fitch and Moody's for instance). Of course, our Latvian partner is not involved in this case.

However, with these new rules under way, we are not able anymore to open accounts within a few days. Account openings take longer, and legal documents can be required. For the moment, FBS Banking offers solutions equal to Riga in terms of quality and confidentiality. Anyway, we are very confident that we will soon be able to offer quick account openings with
our partner in Riga in a very near future