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National scientific conference "The risks of money laundering and terrorist financing for comprehensive financial products - Management challenges and solutions".

On the morning of December 20, the School of training and fostering financial staffs (Ministry of Finance) chaired and coordinated with the Institute of Financial Strategy and Policy, the Department of Finance of banks and financial institutions to organize a National Scientific Conference "Money laundering and terrorist financing risks for inclusive financial products - Management challenges and solutions".

Chairing and speaking at the opening of the Workshop, Mr. Do Van Truong, Director of the School of training and fostering financial staffs, said that preventing money laundering and terrorist financing is one of the activities that lawmakers, policy and enforcement agencies are always concerned.

He also emphasized the importance of preventing money laundering and terrorist financing in creating financial transparency, cleaning up the financial system as well as contributing to reducing other types of crime in society such as smuggling, human trafficking, drugs, corruption, etc.

Mr. Do Van Truong emphasized that law enforcement related to preventing money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction must be more effective and strict in the context that Vietnam's economy is gradually integrating deeply with the world economy, cross-border transactions are increasingly developing.

According to Associate Professor, PhD. Nhu Trong Bach, Deputy Director of the School of training and fostering financial staffs, Head of the Steering Committee of the National Conference, money laundering activities in Vietnam today have increased complexity over time in terms of scale, quantity. In particular, new forms of money laundering have appeared such as virtual assets, virtual currencies, virtual trading floors, etc. Money laundering activities in Vietnam have had a negative impact on the macro economy, reducing financial security and social security. Therefore, the Workshop partly contributes to assessing the current situation as well as recommending compatible solutions suitable with Vietnam's current context in preventing money laundering and terrorist financing for comprehensive financial products.

From the perspective of management agencies, at the Workshop, Mr. Nguyen Huy Cong, Anti-Smuggling and Investigation Department (General Department of Customs) said that subjects can take advantage of paying import and export taxes through organizations providing services for money laundering/terrorism financing; Incorrect declaration of taxable value, increase or decrease in value, quantity, weight of imported and exported goods, etc in order to legalize the origin of assets obtained from crime or mobilize and support money and assets under any form for terrorist organizations or individuals.

From this situation, Mr. Nguyen Huy Cong shared, the Customs sector has promoted the application of non-cash payment methods for taxes, fees and charges arising in the customs field, ensuring that tax payment information is timely.

In addition, aware of the importance of preventing money laundering and terrorist financing, the Customs agency has seriously implemented the Law on Prevention and Combat of Money Laundering and guiding documents, including promulgate documents guiding the entire sector on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing in the fields of customs control, post-customs clearance audit, inspection, risk management, import and export tax. At the same time, sign with the banking inspection and supervision agencies regulations on coordination in exchanging and providing information related to the prevention and combat of money laundering and terrorist financing; smuggling; illegally transporting goods, cash, precious metals, gemstones, negotiable instruments across borders.

Accordingly, the Customs sector has promoted the application of risk management and information technology in operating and managing import-export activities. Pay attention to checking the value and codes of goods to promptly detect cases of misapplying codes and values of goods, ensuring correct and full collection of import and export taxes.

In addition, experts and representatives of authorities also specifically stated the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing in fields related to finance and banking, especially new risks in context of promoting comprehensive finance in Vietnam, digital transformation of the financial sector, industrial revolution 4.0.

While according to economic expert, Associate Professor, PhD. Dinh Trong Thinh, some regulations in the 2012 Law on Prevention and Combat of Money Laundering are no longer appropriate. Therefore, this expert recommends that there should be many solutions to improve mechanisms and regulations on preventive measures applied to units to achieve high results in preventing and combating money laundering.

National action plan to tackle money laundering approved Under the plan, ministries concerned will propose regulations on administrative fines related to virtual assets as well ...

Simultaneously, experts also recommend the need to continue to closely monitor and supervise the implementation of state legal policies on preventing money laundering, and increase vigilance for potentially risky transactions of money laundering, at the same time strengthening internal compliance mechanisms as well as training and propaganda to improve responsibility for officials and employees performing work related to finance and banking, etc.