On Friday December 8, 2023, Tracfin organized its 1st forum on the state of the BC-FT threat at the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance.
This has enabled the various players involved in AML-CFT to get together and strengthen the links between the authorities and those subject to the law.
Contents of the morning
Introduction by Guillaume Valette Valla (Tracfin Director)
- ERMES, the electronic declarations service, is evolving with a better structuring of data for improved analysis, thanks in particular to AI!
- Tracfin modernizes with an active LinkedIn account, webinars and/or discussion forums...
- France is keen to host the European Anti-Money Laundering Authority. In terms of European regulations, the new legislative package will be adopted (very) soon, radically changing certain operating methods (to be continued!).
Feedback from François Molins
Secondly, we were fortunate to have the benefit of feedback from former public prosecutor François Molins.
He traced Tracfin's development since the 90s, and how it has evolved to reach the level of quality recently praised by the FATF.
For him: Rather than having data in silos, data should create a virtuous circle, by crossing flow logics and target logics.
This virtuous circle, coupled with good inter-agency information transmission, not only helps to counter the financing of terrorism, but also to thwart attacks!
On this point, the Attorney General deconstructs a common misconception that only high value financial transactions can be considered sensitive... FALSE, terrorism is also financed on the basis of micro-financing!
Round tables
We then attended 2 round tables, moderated by Nicolas Toulemonde, on practical cases from AML-CFT with the presence of :
* Martine Boutinet (Compliance Director - Crédit Agricole),
* Catherine Fournier (Compliance Director - Groupe BPCE),
* Florence PEYBERNES (President - Haut Conseil du Commissariat aux Comptes),
* Laurence Chevillon (General Manager - Union Française De La Bijouterie, Joaillerie, Orfèvrerie, Des Pierres & Des Perles),
* Laetitia Jacquet Van Coppenolle (Compliance Director & AML-CFT, AXA France)
* Bertrand salewyn (Financial Security Director - Société Générale)
These exchanges were very interesting, and showed the completeness of the different controls carried out by taxable persons, each of whom has different data, knowledge and angles of vision.
Which prompts me to remind you that ALL taxable persons must apply a Compliance policy, and that it is not possible not to do so thinking that another taxable person will do it for you... But you already knew that!
As a bonus, Thomas Cazenave, Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts, reminded the audience that the fight against money laundering, terrorist financing and fraud is a priority for France.