Anti money laundering and counter terrorist financing: India joins Eurasian Group, committing to adopt and enforce international standards. India joined the Eurasian Group, a regional FATF style body, committing to adopt and enforce international AML/CFT standards, engage in peer cooperation, harmonise legal and regulatory frameworks, and strengthen financial sector transparency and safeguards against abuse by organised crime and terrorist groups.
Sustainable business: corporate governance and social responsibility urged to align corporate growth with inclusive, ethical practices. The address advocates an enabling regulatory framework to promote productive, responsible corporate conduct, noting Ministry initiatives: investor education programmes, MCA21 e governance for company registration, Competition Commission activity, Company Law updates, introduction of limited liability partnerships, and convergence with international accounting standards. It endorses voluntary corporate governance and CSR guidelines, defines sustainability to include economic, social and environmental dimensions, urges corporate-led skill development, rural engagement and responsible resettlement and environmental practices, and requires investigatory powers to be exercised under well defined rules with a Cabinet Secretary review.
PAN mandatory for mutual fund investments-investors must furnish PAN and KYC documents regardless of investment size. All mutual fund investors, new and existing, must furnish PAN as a mandatory element of revised KYC compliance; fund houses must collect PAN, address proof, and photograph from every investor irrespective of investment amount to align with anti-money laundering requirements and standardise investor identification.
Tracking foreign remittances: joint monitoring mechanism to flag NGOs and share negative list with reporting entities. An interagency monitoring framework has been established to track inward foreign remittances to NGOs, with 77 NGOs on a prima facie adverse notice list and no FEMA contraventions reported by the Enforcement Directorate. A CEIB sub committee recommended that the Intelligence Bureau share a negative list with the Financial Intelligence Unit for dissemination to reporting entities to enable targeted tracking, and the Government has directed continued joint monitoring to ensure timely legal and procedural follow up of flagged cases.
Information sharing on money laundering: FIU IND authorised to exchange intelligence with foreign FIUs under MOUs for cross border investigations. Authorization permits FIU IND to conclude Memoranda of Understanding with foreign FIUs to exchange information on money laundering and terror financing; FIU IND has signed MOUs with several countries and some MOUs explicitly reference crimes relating to money laundering, establishing the criminal scope for information exchange.
India today gained membership of the Eurasian Group which is a Financial Action Task Force (FATF) styled regional body, responsible for enforcing global standards on anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT). The decision to apply for the membership was taken by the Finance Minister, Shri. Pranab Mukherjee in December 2010.The support for India's membership was unanimous. The Plenary meeting of the Eurasian Group is currently underway in Moscow. India is the 9th member of the group. The other members are Russia, China, Turkmenistan, Serbia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Belarus and, Kazakhstan. The group also has 16 nations and 15 organizations as observers.
The role of the member nations of the group in achieving AML and CFT goals is of particular significance in the view of their geographical location which is close to the epicentre of terrorism. In addition to playing its own role in fighting terror, India is committed at the highest levels of the Government to adopt, enforce and contribute to international best practices in AML and CFT.
As a nation that has been amongst the first to suffer at the hands of terrorists, India understands the human and financial loss to counties that are in the crosshairs of such groups. India would, therefore, individually and collectively face this challenge. Through this membership, India would learn from the experience of the member nations and also contribute to the collective effort in achieving AML CFT goals. In the process, India would be able to work towards achieving a more transparent stable financial system by ensuring that financial institutions are not vulnerable to infiltration or abuse by organized crime groups.
The Indian delegation to the EAG Plenary was led by Shri. Bimal Julka, Addl. Secretary, DEA. Dr. Thomas Mathew, Joint Secretary, Capital Markets and Shri. A.M. Bajaj, Director, External Markets, were members of the delegation.
Anti money laundering and counter terrorist financing: India joins Eurasian Group, committing to adopt and enforce international standards.
India joined the Eurasian Group, a regional FATF style body, committing to adopt and enforce international AML/CFT standards, engage in peer cooperation, harmonise legal and regulatory frameworks, and strengthen financial sector transparency and safeguards against abuse by organised crime and terrorist groups.
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