FIU SL-Registrar General partner to track money laundering via trusts

Sri Lanka’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has partnered with the Registrar General’s Department to monitor trusts and property registrations for the potential money laundering activities. 

The collaboration, formalised through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on August 6, 2024, grants the FIU access to relevant data, enhancing efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) and related crimes.

This MoU has been entered into by the FIU, in terms of the provisions of Financial Transactions Reporting Act No. 6 of 2006.

Registrar General’s Department Registrar General W.R.A.N.S. Wijayasinghe and FIU Director Dr. Subhani Keerthiratne signed the MoU on behalf of the respective institutions. The MoU was signed in the presence of Central Bank Governor Dr. P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, in the capacity of Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) National Coordinating Committee Chairman and Central Bank Assistant Governor E.H. Mohotty also attended the event.

Legal persons and legal arrangements could be misused for ML/TF and related crimes and thereby could threaten the stability of the national and global economic and financial systems. Legal arrangement includes an express trust, a fiduciary account or a nominee.

This MoU will facilitate the Registrar General’s Department to provide information to the FIU, relating to trusts, property registrations and any suspicious activities, which will be vital for prevention, detection and prosecution of ML/TF and related crimes.

With the signing of this MoU, the FIU has entered into 15 MoUs with domestic government agencies, including Sri Lanka Customs, Sri Lanka Police, Immigration and Emigration Department, Inland Revenue Department, Registration of Persons Department, Excise Department of Sri Lanka, Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, etc., in order to share information to strengthen the AML/CFT framework of the country. 
The FIU has entered into 45 MoUs with foreign counterparts as well.