Financial Integrity Newsletter – October edition

Interview with Toms Platacis, Head of FIU Latvia

We have now built a solid, competent, and good reputation, as evidenced by the growing number of foreign colleagues who want to come and exchange experience with us and learn our best practices and expertise.

Suspicious transaction reporting trends in the first half of 2024

FIU Latvia has compiled the latest data on suspicious transaction or activity reports (STRs) submitted to the goAML reporting system in the first half of 2024.

Shadow economy in Latvia down by 3.6 percentage points

A new study shows that the shadow economy in Latvia has shrunk by 3.6 percentage points in 2023 compared to 2022. However, Jānis Brazovskis, Member of the Board of the Financial Industry Association, stresses – the work to eradicate it continues.

Opinion by Uldis Cērps

CEO of the Finance Latvia Association discusses how the fight against money laundering in Latvia is often perceived as a bureaucratic process, but its goal is to ensure compliance with crucial international financial security standards, which also helps to reduce the shadow economy.

Foreword by Baiba Braže, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Latvia

Latvia continues to provide military, political, and financial assistance to Ukraine. At the same time, we are working to restrain and isolate Russia and reduce its combat capabilities, including imposing sanctions on Russia and its ally, Belarus.

Also in this issue:

• European Commission praises Latvia's anti-corruption efforts.
• Latvijas Banka develops a machine-learning tool to highlight anomalies in cross-border payments.
• A US and Latvia training programme strengthens supervision of operational risks for virtual asset service providers.
• Social campaign “Met nost!” informs how to recognise phone scams.
• International goAML conference "goRIGA 2024" held in Latvia.

Financial Integrity Newsletter