Renewed Bank and Payment Accounts Control System helps to combat crime and enables broader cooperation between authorities
The combat against money laundering and financing of terrorism becomes more efficient with the renewed legislation on the Bank and Payment Accounts Control System on 15 September 2022. At the same time, the scope of use of the legal act is extended. With the renewal, the Bank and Payment Accounts Control System can in the future be used by even more authorities, and more efficiently than before.
The bank and payment accounts monitoring system was deployed in 2020. The amendments to legislation that take effect now in mid-September will implement the EU Financial Information Directive, and complement the implementation and regulation of the fifth EU Money Laundering Directive.
– The renewal of legislation will improve our possibilities to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and will extend the cooperation between authorities in for example preventing, uncovering and investigating serious crime, says Samy Gardemeister, Director of Enforcement.
The legal amendments will enable even more authorities with competence in preventing, uncovering and investigating various criminal offences, or with authorisation to obtain account details from financial operators, to use the information in the register. The legal amendments will also facilitate more accurate targeting of enquiries made in the register. There will be less need for overlapping data systems.
Aggregating application to facilitate register use
The aggregating application which is to be introduced with the renewal of legislation will facilitate the work of authorities and financial operators. The aggregating application enables competent authorities to receive, digitally and securely and with a single query, data from both the Bank and Payment Accounts Register that Customs maintains and from individual data retrieval systems. The aggregating application will provide information to data users, and financial operators do not need to create several interfaces for various data users. The aggregating application will be deployed on 1 November 2022.
– We are pleased with the competence that the renewal of legislation gives us for using the system in our won tasks that are relevant to society. The aggregating application that Customs provides will facilitate the use of the register considerably, as information can be used more conveniently. We have plans for deploying the system during the autumn as concerns the aspects that affect Customs. I also hope that data users start their own plans for making use of the system. We are for any plans in every way, says Mr Gardemeister.
Control system to be developed in close cooperation by authorities and financial operators
Customs has developed the system in close cooperation with both data providers and data users. The Bank and Payment Accounts Control System consists of an accounts register maintained by Customs, of data retrieval systems maintained by financial operators and, starting from 1 November 2022, of an aggregating application that Customs maintains. In addition to authorities, also the Bar Association can use the system in its tasks.
As a rule, credit institutions maintain data retrieval systems. Payment institutions, electronic money institutions and virtual currency providers usually store information in the Bank and Payment Accounts Register that Customs maintains. The aggregating application to be deployed in November will combine information from various operators into a single message for data users.
Read more about the Control System on the Customs website.
