Nordic and Baltic financial supervisors enhance cooperation to fight money laundering

Heads of the Nordic and Baltic financial supervisors met today in Stockholm. They agreed on measures to enhance the cooperation between the authorities with the aim of fighting money laundering and terrorist financing.

Joint press release from the financial supervisors of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden

 

As the first step in this process, the existing model for cross-border cooperation on anti-money laundering supervision will be strengthened. The authorities agreed on the following at the meeting:    

  • A permanent working group will be established with representatives from each country’s financial supervisory authority: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania Norway and Sweden. The group will maintain regular contact and exchange experiences and information with the goal of being more effective in the prevention of money laundering. Going forward, anti-money laundering supervision will be more coordinated in the Nordic-Baltic region.  
  • A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be jointly drafted to formalise the continued, long-term cooperation.

 

Comment from Jesper Berg, Director General of the Danish FSA, on the joint press release:

“Today’s agreement marks a significant step forward in the combined Nordic-Baltic efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The agreement follows up on both recommendations made in our statement of January 29, 2019, on the Danske Bank case, and on the recent political agreement in Denmark of March 27, 2019, on strengthening the efforts against financial crime.”