goAML Regional Meeting in Riga gathers participants from more than 20 countries

Exchanging the various experiences in different FIU’s regarding the experience in implementing and working with goAML was particularly valuable. Although all FIU’s use the same application, each country adapts it to its own legal and procedural framework. Opportunity to get to know details on workflows, automated solutions and interconnections with other resources was highly appreciated.

The meeting was attended by financial intelligence experts from Bangladesh, Botswana, Denmark, Ireland, Iceland, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Malta, Mongolia, Finland, Switzerland, Germany and other countries.

Main conclusions of the visit:

• goAML users supported the necessity to introduce new fields so that the suspicious transactions in virtual currencies can be appropriately reported.
• Taking into account the global geopolitical situation and the growing role of sanctions in the field of financial intelligence, representatives of financial intelligence units supported the upcoming solution of sanctions screening.
• The future of goAML development is based on new technologies and the adaptation of flexible system functionality regarding the identified risks.
• There is no country among goAML users that has developed integrated solutions for the analysis of virtual currency transactions into goAML yet.
• The use of artificial intelligence and modern technologies in the financial intelligence process is a valuable contribution to the international cooperation of goAML users and also contributes to the investigation of specific cross-border financial crimes.

“The added value of the meeting was the opportunity for representatives of financial intelligence units as product users to meet with UNODC experts as product developers and discuss the current topics as well as the challenges on the use of goAML. The meeting also provided an opportunity to learn from the experience of other users, so that a country with, for example, innovation in goAML does not have to redesign it, but has the opportunity to adapt the approach from other countries. In addition, the regional meeting of goAML users was a valuable contribution to strengthening its network and building mutual trust, which is essential in the daily cooperation of financial intelligence units as financial crime is increasingly cross-border in nature,“  Ligita Pula, the Head of Innovation and IT Unit of the FIU Latvia highlights the benefits of the meeting.

About goAML

The goAML application is the UNODC Software Products for Member States' response to money laundering and terrorist financing, and is available to Financial Intelligence Units of Member States to support their work.

The main benefits for goAML users include having a uniform and standard global anti-money laundering platform, a modular system to fit the needs of any type of FIU, reduced learning curve for new users and support by a growing user community, as well as benefits from strategic partnerships with many international and regional institutions.

The FIU Latvia introduced the goAML application as of October 1, 2021.

More information about the goAML application on UNODC website https://unite.un.org/goaml/.